


Indigo

by AlastorGrim



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alien Lore, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Dib, Competent Tallest, Competent Zim, DaPR Centric, Dubious Consent, Eventual Smut, Irken Technology, Kidnapping, Multi, Other, Purple Is Kinda Dark, RaPF, RaZR - Freeform, So Choose Your Weapon I Guess, Space Pirate Dib, The Resisty Resisting Against The Irken Empire, Yule log, ZADF, caste systems, no beta we die like men, revolutions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2020-11-27 05:14:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 46,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20942837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlastorGrim/pseuds/AlastorGrim
Summary: Dib leaves Earth when he fixes Tak's ship, only to be stopped by the Resisty. Dib quickly changes tactics from his aimless wandering through the Galaxy to helping the Resisty bring down the Irken Empire. He changes its name, explores a few galaxies, and blows up some Irken ships, all while making the Resisty, AKA, The Resistance, more and more dangerous to the Irken Empire.Currently left alone to run the Massive by himself while Red runs off to chase tail, Purple is the one to see these slights against their reign. He's impressed.That's not to say that he won't be crushing this new leader of theirs under his heel, of course.





	1. I Just Wanna See The Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I DIDN'T SEE THE DAPR CONTENT I WANTED SO I MADE IT AND HERE IT IS, THE MOST SELF-INDULGENT THING I'VE WRITTEN SINCE JOYSTICK. BUCKLE UP BITCHES.
> 
> I honestly thought I'd post some ZaDR first but fate said it ain't happening. This is gonna be fun.
> 
> Background RaZR :D

Dib tossed his last bag into the modified trunk of Tak's ship, then dusted his hands off on his jeans. Beneath the metal hull, a pair of thin, black legs twitched and an irritated shout echoed from below. 

"Idiot! Don't shake it while Zim is beneath it! Are you trying to CRUSH Zim, stink-beast?" Zim demanded as he rolled out from underneath the ship with a glare in Dib's direction.

"Why are you still looking around under there, anyway?" Dib evaded as he slammed the lid shut. "We fixed the flight core ages ago, and you've checked it eighty times since then! It's fine, Zim, it's not going to crash and burn on me. It's breached atmosphere before, remember?"

One of Zim's antennae twitched as he looked away in a huff. "Zim just wants to ensure that you do not crash the ship again, Dib-stupid. Then we'll have to do this all over again!"

Dib scoffed. "Zim, if I crash it from trying to break the atmosphere, then I probably won't be alive to work on it again with you." Zim's antennae went flat against his head and he let out a hiss. Dib hurried to finish his point. "But I'm pretty sure we have it down, so I doubt that'll be an issue."

"Good. Because if you make me do all of this work all over again by myself, I will resurrect you through your beloved 'magix' and you will not know rest for the rest of your eternal days!" Zim slammed his hand down on the tool table beside him on the ground, causing the screwdrivers to fly everywhere. "YOU WILL ONLY KNOW ZIM'S WRATH!"

"Aw, I love you too buddy."

"You INSOLENT--"

"Anyway," Dib interrupted hastily. "My Dad's gonna be back in an hour and I told Gaz what was up yesterday, so I'd like to be gone before he gets home from the store." 

Zim's lips pursed and his brow furrowed. Dib broke eye contact first to turn and open the ship's cockpit to climb in. A black gloved hand fisted in the grass, ripping it up. "...I do not like this." Zim murmured. Dib glanced back at him. "I do not like that you are leaving without me."

Dib's eyes softened. He sighed and turned from the ship to go crouch beside Zim. He set a hand on Zim's shoulder and squeezed, trying for reassuring. "I know. But you said that you didn't want to go with me and risk other Irkens seeing you."

Gloved hands reached out and dug into Dib's chest harshly, just shy of breaking skin. "I know what I said, human. That doesn't mean that Zim isn't...worried."

He spat out the last word like bile, face scrunched up in distaste. Dib forced down a laugh, knowing Zim wouldn't take it well. He ducked his head and gave an overdramatic, put-upon sigh. "What a tragedy, to feel things as us humans do."

"I don't like it. Feeling things is disgusting."

Dib couldn't hold back a laugh this time, snickering as he tugged the obnoxious alien into a hug that had him squawking and flailing. "I'm gonna miss you too, Zim."

He got a small palm in the sternum for his trouble. He let out a soft 'oof' and winced in pain as Zim hit him again. "Stupid Dib-thing, you smell of oil and stink! RELEASE ZIM!"

"Alright, alright!" Dib wheezed as he leaned back from Zim, one hand up in surrender and the other rubbing at his chest. 

"You are a sack of fragile meats, _Dib_," Zim snarled with a scowl. But he had twisted his claws into Dib's coat and kept him from moving too far away. "There are many things that would kill you, given the chance. Though no one is advanced as the Irken race, most alien life forms are _far_ superior predators to humans and will _eat_ you without me there to dissuade them."

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," Dib deadpanned. "I think I'll be just fine." He stood, subsequently taking Zim to his feet as well when he refused to release his death grip on Dib's coat.

"No! You will be eaten, and then the ship will just float off into the deepest reaches of space with your communicator, and then Zim will be left to wonder what happened to you as the days stretch into weeks and then months and then _years_ on this horrible planet without--" Zim was working himself up into a panic, his chest heaving as he stared at the black fabric in his hands and shook.

Dib quickly knelt back down and pried Zim's hands from his coat. They dug into his palms and drew blood. He winced. "H-Hey, I'm not going to die, Zim. I promise."

Zim's glazed eyes snapped back to his and narrowed as he hissed, "You cannot promise me that."

Pursing his lips, Dib took a moment to think before shrugging. "Okay, yeah, I can't promise you that. But I _can_ promise you that I'll be careful. No grand alien monster hunting or anything. If anything, the first thing I'll do is probably head to Vort to study with some of their scientists for a bit. Very un-dangerous."

If anything, this seemed to incite Zim more. He lunged forward and took Dib's face in his hands, shaking him roughly. "YOU MUST NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR VORT," Zim screeched, eyes wild. "You IDIOT human! It is under _Irken_ control! Do you know what my people would do to you if they discovered what you're capable of? What you've DONE?" Zim shook his head and glared at Dib sternly. "Stay. Away. From. Vort. Do you understand? NOD IF YOU UNDERSTAND ZIM, DIB-BEAST!"

"I _would_ if you would let go of my face!" Dib snapped back testily. Zim released his hold on Dib's cheeks with a growl, and Dib worked his jaw for a moment before replying. "You really think I'm dumb enough to go poking around Irken territory? Even if I did, there's no way they could know what I did, not unless you plan on broadcasting that information across the universe. I'm a 'pitiful human', remember? Any Irken I meet--if I even meet any--will just look right over me." 

"Not likely, considering how tall you are, though you are rather unremarkable otherwise," Zim mused. His brow furrowed and he cupped his chin, thinking. His mouth twisted down in displeasure. "Nonetheless, it's possible you could be traced back to me either way." Zim made a soft, high noise of distress that Dib was pretty sure he wasn't aware he was making.

"That's not so bad. I'm friends with the Great and Amazing ZIM!" He puffed out his chest and pointed at the sky in a half-assed impression of Zim. "They will kneel before me!"

"That's not funny! This is serious and you are not taking it as such!" Zim shot back, though his lips were twitching. 

"Aw c'mon, Space-Boy, lighten up. Besides, it's been three years since you've even contacted another Irken, who would even recognize me?"

Zim paused then, and his antennae shot up as his eyes widened, then flattened back against his skull. That high noise increased in volume. "My--The Tallest. The Tallest could recognize you. They saw you on call several times. Enough to have a physical profile, at the very least."

Dib rested his hand between Zim's shaking antennae and shrugged. "That was five years ago. I've changed a lot since then, and I doubt they deemed me important enough to make note of anyway."

Bristling at the contact, but not shoving him away again, Zim grumbled, "That makes two of us."

A spike of disgust for Zim's leaders shot through Dib's chest, but he bit his tongue against it. Voicing his own anger at the Tallest wouldn't make Zim feel any better. So Dib tugged Zim in for one last hug (quick, so that Zim couldn't hit him again) then straightened and turned back towards the ship. "I'll be really careful, Zim, I promise. And I'll call you every week. I'll be fine--_you'll_ be fine. I have faith that nothing's going to go wrong."

"That is a very stupid thing to have," Zim sniffed, but he glanced up as Dib swung himself into the cockpit of the ship. Dib started it up and one of Zim's antennae twitched forwards, face softening. He clicked out something in Irken, Dib's name tacked onto the end.

Pausing in the act of shutting the visor, Dib tilted his head. He had learned a good amount of Irken over the years, but that was a phrase he'd never heard before. "What does that mean?"

Zim leveled him with an intense stare, arms crossed. He tipped his own head. "...Goodbye, Dib-stink."

A small, wry smile curled Dib's lips. "Goodbye, Space-Boy."

With that, he slid the visor the rest of the way shut. The ship lifted off the ground, hovering higher and higher until it was a good three feet above the garage. Dib looked down and gave Zim one last wave, then spun the ship and shot off towards the sky beyond.

Zim stood below in the yard, a hand half raised, too late, in goodbye. He dropped his hand and clenched his fist. 

"_You're with me Stars to Suns, Dib Membrane._"

•⚡•

Dib broke the atmosphere with such ease it made him feel a little stupid for worrying so much about it. From there, it was only an hour until he was out of the Milky Way entirely and on his way to new frontiers.

He was aware that he was being a nerd about it, but honestly, when someone spent their entire life wanting to travel space, and then finally _got_ to, well, Dib figured he was entitled to a few geek-outs here and there. So after he'd finished gushing to himself about passing a tiny planet that had four astral rings, he pulled up the map Zim had made for him that had all the planets that Dib could safely visit without dying a slow, painful death programmed into it. The first planet was around a two days journey away from the Milky Way, and it was made almost entirely out of water. 

"Set a course for planet," Dib squinted at the screen. "Parblesnops. I'll stop there first to scope out exactly what kind of welcoming humans receive on other planets to see if I'll need a disguise from here on out. Shouldn't be likely, but I don't wanna be surprised. Aaaand I'm talking to myself again. Great." He punched in the coordinates on the control panel, then went back to the map to try planning his course from there.

Dib wanted to hit up every planet that Zim had green-lighted, and even a few that he hadn't, just because they looked so interesting that his curiosity almost overwhelmed him. But Dib knew that there was a whole lot of space to explore, and hitting up every planet he could would just give him a reputation that he didn't need. He wasn't an idiot. Not every planet would take well to whatever touristy vibe Dib was sure he was going to be giving off. 

There were a few planets that Zim had coded red for the **DO NOT ENTER ORBIT EVER** warning, saying that they were most likely under Irken control or going to be within a year or so, and Dib should avoid them. He fully planned to stay away from those planets, even if he mourned the chance to pick the brain's of the Vortians. One Irken was enough to deal with, thanks, and Dib had seen how Irkens approached other species. He didn't have the want or the need to deal with it, and since Zim coded the planets for him, he wouldn't have to.

On the thought of Zim, Dib pulled up his communicator and set it to call Zim like he'd promised. 

…It went about as well as Dib could have expected. 

GIR had answered before Zim could get to it, and Dib suffered through five minutes of, "Hi Mary! Wait, how'd you get in there? I'LL SAVE YOU FROM THE TRAPPY MIRRORS, MARY!" And the dorky little robot smashing Zim's keyboard in an attempt to 'free' Dib from the monitor. 

Then Zim came in and screamed at GIR for another ten minutes before banning him from the communication room. Zim set about fixing his keyboard as Dib told him about his plans to visit Parblesnops, which he scoffed at and declared Parbleians 'neanderthal frogs with no taste'. He had been frosty with Dib for the first few minutes of their conversation, but eventually thawed as they chatted more. 

Dib knew that Zim's main concern with Dib leaving was the alien's own loneliness. After being disowned by his own species, Zim didn't really have anyone else but Dib. And then Dib had gone off to frolic in space, just like Zim now _couldn't_. It was bound to make him a little bitter. Dib didn't blame him for it.

But as Dib set the ship to autopilot and reclined the seat back for the night, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Dread settled in his stomach like a ball of lead, pushing his innards up until they tangled in his throat, making it hard to breathe. 

For some reason, despite his excitement, he couldn't help the feeling that none of this was going to end well.

•⚡• 

When Dib made it to Parblesnops, he quickly found out that Zim was right. Parbleians were a bunch of neanderthal frogs. They looked like stretched out Kermit puppets, just with darker skin and big, bulbous, red eyes. The buildings were built out of cleverly grown lakeweed and lilypads, the windows of them made out of some sort of silty film that popped whenever someone touched it. 

Dib knew this because he saw several, smaller Parbleians running from building to building, mischevious grins on their wide faces, poke at the film's and then run away away before whatever owner inside could come out and shout at them. Like an alien version of ding dong ditch. 

The translator that Dib had made (though Zim downloaded all the languages into it) was tucked safely in his ear, and he landed on a lilypad that also housed a few other space ships. Eager to get out and stretch his legs after two days cooped up in the ship, Dib completely missed the fact that one of the ships was of Vortian design.

Parbleians were friendly enough, though their vocabulary was limited, even with the translator. Dib bartered his way through a few shops to load up on water and food. He picked up a book on Parblesnops history, took a selfie against the backdrop of a blue and yellow sunset to send to Gaz if he ever got phone service again, then made his way back to the ship. The stop wasn't long or overly exciting, but it got Dib pumped up for space travel all over again. 

His next plan was to hit up planet MWA739, but he would be skipping a few habitable planets to get there. It was a week and a half's trip, but Dib figured he could stop at the habitable places in between if he ran low on supplies again. He was really excited to visit MWA739, because it was more of a tourist-friendly planet, with such a diversity of species that it was known for never being able to see the same type of alien more than twice. It presented a much better opportunity to learn, and Dib intended to take full advantage of it.

The only thing that made Dib uneasy with it, however, was that Zim had coded in a bright red planet right beside MWA739 on the map. But the planet itself wasn't colored red, and Zim had green-lighted it, so it would be fine, right?

Dib shook his head and lifted off and out of Parblesnops' orbit. Whatever. He had to call Zim again before he reached the planet anyway. He could ask him then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FORGOT IT WAS VORT NOT VORTIA MB I FIXED IT


	2. Touring a Tourist Trap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is way longer than the last one, but there's actual, ya know, plot in this one, sooooo. Enjoy :D

Planet MWA739 was much, much larger than Parblesnops. Dib was directed to a parking dock just outside the planet's atmosphere by a purple alien in a fluffy space suit, which was already filled seemingly to the brim with ships. Dib had no idea how he was going to fit in there, until he noticed that ships were disappearing from spots as fast as they were filling up. Wary now, he hesitantly pulled up to an empty spot and lowered the cruiser down onto it. A flash of light and the feeling of being burned alive later, Dib was stumbling into a vendor and dry heaving onto a glass tiled sidewalk. 

"What the _fuck_," Dib wheezed as he raised his head and looked around with wide eyes. He blinked, then whirled for a second, panicked. "Where's the--oh." He paused as a tiny jingle came from his waist and he looked down to see a keychain replica of his ship attached to his jeans, a tag with a red button that declared PRESS TO LEAVE on the side.

"Neat!" Dib chirped. He fiddled with it for a second before finally deciding to go look around.

He actually had stopped at a planet in between Parblesnops and MWA739 to refill on water and call Zim, who had told him that while MWA739 was technically out of the Irken Armada's flight path, that he should be careful anyway, with it being so close to a conquered planet. 

Though, Zim said it much louder and with several more colorful insults to Dib's intellect than that. Dib knew not to take it personally; it was Zim, after all. He was just worried.

When Dib looked up, he was instantly reminded of that time his dad had dragged him and Gaz to a conference in New York. The buildings were tall enough that Dib couldn't see the tips of them, and multicolored lights flashed as sounds and smells floated over to him like a cacophony of life. As he looked out into the streets, he realized that there was no real ground. The buildings also stretched down into the darkness below, where the natural light of the planet's fascinating blue sun couldn't reach. They were all made out of some sort of dark metal that seemed to mold and shift with every minute that passed, so he was almost never looking at the same scene twice. 

The aliens themselves were a whole different story. Dib caught sight of a reptilian creature in a sheer tux, a six-limbed praying mantis thing with a long spike jutting out of the back of its head, and even a humanoid looking one that was entirely blue shaded and made partially of metal. 

Dib's awe was unparalleled. He was so giddy with excitement, so eager, that he nearly fell to his death immediately as his feet unconciously took him towards the edge of the glass tiles. He lept back as another alien, this one monochrome with leathery wings, nearly crashed into him as he teetered over the side. He fell back on his ass, shook his head, and laughed, slightly shaky. "Wow."

"First time, huh?" A gravelly voice said.

"W-What?" Dib yelped as he scrambled to his feet, embarrassed. Behind him stood a stout golem creature encrusted in tourmaline. It raised an eyebrow(?) at him.

"You got that touristy look about ya." 

Well shit. 

Dib swallowed. "First time on this particular planet, yes," He answered defensively. Crossing his arms, Dib raised his chin to try and look intimidating.

The golem alien just seemed amused. It choked out a laugh and rocked back on crumbling heels. "Relax, kid. 739 jus' does somethin' to beings, no matter what race we are or what planet we're from. I nearly fell off the platform my first time too." It tipped its head, smiling. "Big city though. You looking for something specific? Or are you just here ta gawk?"

Flushing, Dib scowled. "I'm looking for better tech, actually," He snapped. "My planet is very..."

'_Don't say primitive, you sound like Zim_.'

"...Behind, on scientific advancements."

The golem grinned at him, and Dib was startled to see the it had multiple rows of jaggedly cut ruby teeth, like the inside of a geode. Dib recoiled, unnerved. It just laughed at him. "I think I know a place then, if yer interested." It held out a stubby hand. "Name's Ypmurg. Nice to greet ya."

Dib tentatively took its hand and shook. "I'm Dib. And don't you mean nice to meet you?"

It did that weird eyebrow raise again. "I met cha five minutes ago. I greeted you just now. I meant what I said."

"Uh, right," Dib muttered, brow furrowed. He took his hand back and shoved it into his pocket. "Yeah, I'm interested. If you'd be willing to take me," He trailed off and stepped to the side with a half-assed flourish of his hand. "Lead the way."

Ypmurg huffed out an amused noise and walked around Dib to stand on the tile beside him. "Squares M1947 and M1948 to Akfj's, floor three."

"What--whoa!" Dib exclaimed as the glass tile beneath him jolted forward and began to zip off downwards in a jerky spiral. Dib was sure that he would've fallen right off the now mobile tile had it not been for his sneakers suddenly adhering to the glassy surface.

"I understand having a home planet that ain't exactly, hm, up to code, to say it nicely," Ypmurg said conversationally as they continued to descend. "Back on Sevrawd, we didn't even have ships yet, ha! Can you imagine? I built my own, of course, then left and never looked back. Nothing waiting for me back there, not like out here. Whaddabout you?" 

"Well," Dib began slowly, unsure whether or not he should be sharing this information with a stranger. "Earth didn't have ships either--none for prolonged space travel, anyway. It would take eons just to get out of the Milky Way in an Earth ship. But I actually had someone...crashland, into my neighborhood. I fixed up the ship, then decided take an extended vacation. I've always loved space and wondered about what it would be like, to go out there and travel and live among the stars. But I have a few people waiting for me back on Earth that I'll eventually have to go back for. I don't think I could ever 'get my fill' of space, but I'm hoping that by the time I go back, they'll be able to come with me."

"Humans got families too?"

"Yeah. Normal families on Earth have two parents and two to five kids."

"Your species can carry more than one child per lifetime?" Ypmurg exclaimed, coal-like eyes wide.

Dib smiled and felt himself loosen up a bit. The trip down took about ten minutes, before they took an abrupt left between two spiral buildings for another five. For the duration of the ride, Dib traded facts about humans with Ypmurg, who in turn supplied him with a lot of insight on the Sedoeg race. Dib got much more information than he gave, however, because he talked much faster and could think of questions quicker. 

"Wait, wait, so you guys have actually have scrolls in your chest, like real golems?"

"Whaddya mean 'real'? Of course golems are real! Yer lookin' right at one! But yeah, our Skrol is what makes us who we are. Take it out, and we go kaput--nothing but a pile of rocks. But it's said that everything we have done and will ever do is written on them. No one can prove it, a'course, because nobody wants to go yanking their Skrol out just for a peek at their future, but it wouldn't surprise me. Skrols make a Sedoeg who they are, ya know?"

"Oh," Dib muttered as he jotted a few more bullets down on his pocket notebook. "So like Irken PAKs."

At that, Ypmurg glanced up at him curiously. "What would you know about them?"

Stomach dropping through his shoes, Dib went pale as what he'd said registered with him. He-He hadn't been thinking--why would he say that? Dib felt his pulse spike as Zim's voice echoed like a bell toll through his head.

_"Do you know what my people would do to you if they discovered what you're capable of? What you've DONE?"_

Hastily stuffing his notepad and his pen back into his pockets, Dib stammered, "N-Nothing! Uh, I know nothing a-about that, ha, at all, so you know, erm..." He trailed off awkwardly as Ypmurg's eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. "Eheh. Um--oh hey, look we're here!"

Dib was off the tile as soon as it clicked into place with the others on the floor of the odd shop in front of them, desperate for a distraction from their conversation.

The shop in looming in front of them looked like an alien version of Hot Topic. The outside walls were backdropped in black with some sort of white goo dripping down them, a bright red neon sign declaring _**AKFJ'S**_ hung crookedly above the doorway, which had no actual doors. Smoke billowed out from the lip of the doorways, and Dib wrinkled his nose as he came closer and got a whiff of overpowering banana flavouring. He hadn't even gone inside and he was already sure that this was the store for alien hipsters who needed intergalactic vape pens or something. 

Dib pursed his lips and turned slightly back towards the tiles, "Hey, are you sure this is--?" 

He cut himself off when he noticed that Ypmurg had already walked off down the tiles and disappeared into another shop further to the left. Huh. Well then.

Dib steeled himself and strode confidently into the shop, his eyes watering as the gross smell of oversweet bananas assaulted his senses. He let out a little cough, chest burning, the blinked as the smoke cleared.

The inside of the shop was dark, with blocky bulbs of luminescent blue stripped across the ceiling. The store itself was small, about the size of a gas station, with short shelves lining the center and taller ones pushed back against the walls. They were cluttered strange devices, knickknacks, and even a few books. Intrigued, Dib started forward only to pause when he remembered that he didn't have any money. Well, he had Earth money, but he doubted green slips of paper were gonna get him very far in space. He'd only taken it with him because it felt weird to take it out of his suitcase. Gaz had stashed it beneath his socks when she thought he wasn't looking, though he was sure that she thought he was taking his debit card with him. (Why she thought it would work in space, he didn't know). He'd left his card with Zim for emergencies, so that if something happened and he needed some 'human monies', he wouldn't have to resort to drastic measures and nearly blow up the planet.

Shaking his head, Dib looked over the shelves and bit his lip. It wouldn't hurt to look, right?

He began to wander through the shelves, trailing his hand idly over the edges of the shelves, careful not to touch anything lest he set off something dangerous. He eyed a few guns, but left them be, no matter how cool they looked. It wasn't like he was on the run or anything, he was just exploring, and had the hostile planets X-ed off his star maps for him, so it wasn't like he'd be fighting anybody. He didn't need that laser gun with eight barrels. He _didn't_.

Dib tore his gaze from the gun but cast it a longing glance as he continued down the aisle. The more he looked, the more he realized that this was essentially a thrift store. The technology to each device was so different that it couldn't have possibly been made by the same people, and the books were all in different languages. One, Dib noted with surprise, was even in Irken. He picked it up with interest, only to open it and roll his eyes at the note scribbled in the front. 

°_Foolish inferior beings! I have sold you a common Irken smeetery book for a fortune, simply because you cannot read it! And you will sell it to other foolish beings who also cannot read it! And then they will sell it to more foolish beings who cannot_°--

Snapping it closed, he put it back on the shelf.

Dib wandered the shelves with increasing incredulity at the items cluttered atop them. He even found a pile of pennies next to a spider web make entirely out of diamonds. He picked up a few of the pennies just to make sure they weren't hiding any advanced tech, but no, they were just regular Earth pennies. Dib wondered how they even got here.

"Hey! Hands off the merchandise! That cost more than your entire head!"

Dib jumped about a foot in the air, choking on his next inhale. He spun around to see an annoyed looking alien leaning against the desk on the opposite side of the shop. It was some kind of feathery, one eyed creature wearing a blue and white striped suit. "The pennies? _Really_?"

The creature scoffed. "Everyone knows that copper is a delicacy, you egg."

"Alright, alright, I'm putting it back, jeez," Dib muttered with a huff.

A single, toxic green eye with a slitted pupil narrowed at him until he put the pennies back. Two feathers fluffed up at the top of its head as its pupil widened back out, relaxed again.

Glancing between the pennies and the store clerk with bewilderment, Dib cautiously resumed his browsing, occasionally peeking at the desk just to observe. It had a hooked upper lip, almost like a beak but smaller, softer, and covered in white downy feathers. Its claws were covered by dark blue gloves up to its elbows, and below the large bow tie of the suit there was a puff of feathers, like the aggravated breast of a bird. He couldn't see anything below the desk, but Dib assumed it was just as dapper as the rest of the outfit. It didn't really fit with the theme of the store.

Eventually, Dib came across a pair of black goggles. They looked a lot like the safety glasses his dad kept in a box by the door, just less bulky. He tentatively picked the goggles up to look them over, wary of the bored clerk in the background. There were several small buttons along the insides of the ear pieces, which curled at the end like they were supposed to sit in the cusp of his ear. Curious, he took off his glasses and slid them onto his face. He couldn't see out of them, and he frowned for a moment before the lenses suddenly flashed blue.

"_Statum te malle speciei._"

Dib jolted a little when a tiny voice spoke into his ear, then blinked. Was that...was that _Latin_? Shit, he hadn't studied Latin since fifth grade. Dib floundered for a second before hesitantly venturing, "Uh, Earth?"

"_Affirmavit. Aditum concedendum._ Selected: dolphin. Hello new user."

"Uuuuhhhh..." Dib said eloquently, still reeling. What did dolphins have to do with anything? Was that like a code or something? He shook his head and cleared his throat softly. "Hello?"

"Tutorial mode: On. Please press the first button to your right to begin function 1A." The voice replied in monotone. 

Unsure what else to do, Dib reached up and pressed the button. The lenses flickered, then cleared to reveal the rest of the room, except with no residual fog or dimness. He could see everything crystal clear. "Whoa." 

"Please press the last button on your left, and then the first on that same side to initiate functions 7V and 1B." 

"Okay," Dib mused. "The last and the first on the--oh!" The lenses flickered once more and suddenly everything was covered in lines of green. Dib caught sight of the clerk glaring at him, but he was more interested in the information currently listed in chartreuse right beside its head. 

**PLANET: Blurb**

**RACE: Blurbon**

**ALIGNMENT: Vis**

**NOT A HOSTILE**

Dib sucked in a sharp breath and resisted the urge to start bouncing up and down like an excited toddler. "Spy goggles. Oh my God. Space spy goggles."

His heels began to twitch in his losing battle against his excitement, and he nearly vibrated as the goggles took him through the rest of its its functions, including a speech translator, holographic disguise system, atmosphere bubble, and broadcasting ear piece. 

A long sigh came from the other side of the store, and Dib turned to see the Blurbon clerk losing patience with him. "If you don't plan on buying them, then put them back. Stop touching everything." 

Dib took off the goggles and held them up with a raised eyebrow. "How much for these?"

The Blurbon gave him a once over and snorted. "Five thousand and six krems."

"What are those?" Dib blurted out thoughtlessly.

"If you don't even know what monies you're supposed to be paying with, then we're done here," the Blurbon said snidely. They turned to reach under the counter, but Dib hastily waved them off before they could call security. 

"Wait! Maybe..." Dib trailed off as he glimpsed the pile of pennies again. His eyes widened and he slowly turned his gaze back to the clerk with a growing smirk. "Maybe we could work something out."

•⚡•

Dib was transported back to his ship in a sickening swirl of color, but he managed to keep from dry heaving this time. He teetered a bit, then fell forward as the items in his arms over balanced him. Blowing his cowlick out of his face with a huff of air, Dib leaned back and grinned down at them.

He'd gotten the goggles, the spider web things that were actually attachable gravity defiers, and--after a little haggling--the Irken children's book. If nothing else, it'd be an interesting read, but Dib intended to use it as a sort of Rosetta Stone to program Irken into his goggles, since it was one of the few languages it couldn't translate for him. He wanted to surprise Zim with it, even if he would probably yell at him for descrating his people's language or whatever. But at least Dib would be able to say those Irken swears now!

As he attached the defiers to his sneakers, he glanced up to see that he was back in the parking lot. The ship didn't have to go anywhere anytime soon, so Dib decided to go ahead and get started on reprogramming his new glasses.

It was painstaking, since Dib knew more spoken Irken than written, but he got about a quarter of the way through when his communicator began to sound. Brow furrowed, he reached over and set it in front of him, then tipped his head. "Put it through."

There was crackle of static, and then Zim's face filled the screen. "DIB-THING. Where are you?" 

Dib set his goggles on his face, pressed the button, and grinned. "Hey, Zim. Nice to see you."

"There is no time for greetings, stink beast! Where--" Zim cut himself off, big magenta eyes blinking widely. When he saw Dib's shit-eating grin, he scowled. "How are you speaking Irken!" He demanded, and there was a movement offscreen that told Dib Zim had stomped his foot.

"I went shopping," Dib answered with a laugh. He tapped the side of his goggles and smiled. "Got these. Multi-function. They replace my old glasses, translate my speech, and help me identify other alien species. Cool, right? I attached our auditory translator to them too, see?" He pointed at the little bulb of pink metal at the end of the curved earpiece.

"Zim can _see_, Dib-stupid," Zim spat. "You have defiled my technology for another pair of corrective lenses. But I will properly chastise you later; WHERE ARE YOU?"

"I'm still on MWA739. Why?" Dib questioned suspiciously. He wouldn't put it past Zim to fly all the way out here and risk his safety just to whack Dib on the head.

Zim's antennae went down abruptly from their previous position on high alert. His annoyed expression dropped. "Then..."

The ball of dread in Dib's stomach that he'd been ignoring suddenly got ten times heavier. Dib leaned forward. "Zim, what's going on? Why did you ask me where I was?"

"...An Irken ship has entered the Earth's orbit." Zim's expression was blank, but Dib felt a shiver go down his spine. 

"What? How? _Who_?" 

"I DON'T KNOW!" Zim shouted abruptly, exploding into a flurry of flailing arms and shaky hands. "That is why I called YOU, but apparently it is NOT you, so now we are both in the dark."

Dib swallowed, took a deep breath, and let it out. He ran a hand through his hair and looked back up at Zim. "Okay. Okay, we can handle this. You can pick them up on your radar, right? That means they can probably pick you up too, so you need to shut off all of your signal based tech. It could lead them straight to you. So as soon as I hang up, you need to go on a complete black out as far as Irken technology goes. Go to my house--Gaz will let you in to use my computers so you can still keep track of the ship."

"But--"

The screen of the ship went static, then black, his communicator shutting off as well. Dib's heart rate skyrocketed. He leaned forward,grabbed the communicator, and shook it hard, desperate. "Zim? Zim! Zim, can you hear me?"

There was a bang against the hull of his ship, and the interior rattled ominously in the new dimness. Dib fell off his chair, his mini soldering gun shaking off the console and landing on his arm. He hissed in pain, the smell burning fabric filling the cab. The hatch of his ship was wrenched open, and Dib let out a shout when several hands descended on him at once. They yanked him out by his shoulders, one pair of hands reaching to tie his hands behind his back as another bound his ankles. Before Dib could blink he was being tossed into another ship, his back slamming into the wall with bruising force.

Groaning, Dib lolled his head up to see several oddly shaped silhouettes shadowed against the bright lights of the city before them. The one at the front, one with slim, calculating eyes and ram horns, stepped forward.

"Welcome, _hyoomun_," They rumbled. "To the Resisty."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooooooo, we're getting the ball ROLLIN'! WHO'S EXCITED??? Definitely not Zim :'3 Three guesses who's in that ship~
> 
> (Me making up alien shit: Fuckin' uuuuhhhh, just thROW A BUNCHA CONSONANTS IN THERE AND THINGS THAT ARE WEIRD FOR HUMANS TO DO AND HOPE IT MAKES SENSE.)
> 
> Also, if you make a fic with space pirate Dib and don't give him cool space goggles then what's even the point?


	3. The Voice of The Unheard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, beating ZaDR off this fic with a broom: No, bad! Bad ship! Go'on, git! This ain't your fic! Yours is over there!

"Stop--stop that. Stop laugh--no--stop--_stop laughing_!"

Dib leaned his forehead against the cool metal of the ship floor and giggled breathlessly, unable to stop himself even as the little goat creature demanded it. "Oh...haha...oh my God, that is such a stupid name. Who came up with that?" He wheezed between heckles, his cheeks ruddy with lack of air and his stomach spasming in pain. "The _Resisty_!"

He fell into another bout of cackles, which only seemed to incite the alien in front of him even more. The ship jolted to a stop and the goat alien--Dib had heard on of the others call it Nar--scowled, then jerked his head at one of the Vortian to his right. "Bring him inside, Spleenk."

The Vortian nodded and came forward to gently hook its thin, mantis-style arms under Dib's arms and hoist him up. He wheezed for a moment, struggling to control his mirth as he was toted out of the ship and onto one of the glass platforms of the planet below. It was thicker than the one Dib had landed on earlier, covered in some strange jelly substance that smothered the tiles' glow. Dib's giggling slowed to sporadic chuckles as his curiosity booted back up. He assumed that whatever the substance was, it was what allowed the ship to transport down to the planet whole. "H-Hey, wait."

"No waiting," Spleenk murmured gravely. "No time."

"What does that mean?" Dib asked with a raised eyebrow. His laughter quieted altogether as he came back to terms with the fact that he'd just been captured by a group of hostile aliens. 

"It means that we are on a schedule, hyoomun," The alien called Nar replied as he caught up to them, hooves clacking loudly on the tiles.

Dib huffed in annoyance at the vague answer, but any further questions went ignored as he was brought into a shady looking building that had a shittily painted banner declaring _**ReSiSTY**_ over the doorway. Down a few dark hallways and up a set of stairs, and then Dib was being tied to a chair in the center of a room with peeling wallpaper. This building had clearly been something else before the Resisty had squirreled away in it, though what exactly, Dib couldn't tell.

He blew a few stray hairs out of his face and cocked his head at the three aliens in front of him. The Vortian Spleenk, the goat Nar, and--

Dib blinked.

There was a small figure standing beside Spleenk with her arms crossed, a purple robe draped over her small form and shielding her face from view. Had it not been for the bold, blocky, green letters spelling out **IRKEN** above her head, he never would've known. In fact, had it not been for his new goggles, he wouldn't have even known she was female, she was so well hidden. A spy in the Resisty's midst? Or another jilted irken like Zim, degraded and torn down by their militarism?

"You arrived on MWA739 in a disguised Irken Invader ship, hyoomun," Nar began. "Did you or did you not attempt to infiltrate this planet using Irken technology?" He demanded, small eyes squinted in angry suspicion. Spleenk laid a hand on his shoulder, and he relaxed marginally.

"Okay, first of all, it's pronounced _human_, you weirdo, and second, I have a name--Dib. Try using it, won't you?" He said frostily, irritated. When Nar only blinked at him, he sighed. "No, I didn't try to infiltrate this planet using Irken tech. Irken tech is just all I currently have at my disposal."

"Then why did you try to hide your ship's origin?" The Irken shot back as she took a threatening step forward. She looked over at Nar, "We should just take it. It should've reattatched itself when we entered the atmosphere, we could just lift it off him." She stepped forward again, and Dib chanced a hasty look down to see the keychain clipped once more onto his jeans. Huh.

Spleenk held a hand out. "Ixane. Easy."

She growled, but stepped back again. Dib tipped his head. Interesting. Was Spleenk some sort of mediator? A second in command, perhaps?

Din shook his head and zeroed his focus back in on the task at hand. "Because I know what it looks like when a random Irken ship shows up uninvited, and I've been actively trying to stay _away_ from Irken territory. I know what they're like. I don't want any part of it."

The three seemed to think that over, until eventually Spleenk gave a slow nod. "I think he is telling the truth."

Nar crossed his arms and huffed, "I don't like it, but I think so too. Which brings us around to the next question." He took a step forward, determined, and this time Spleenk didn't stop him. Nar got right up in Dib's space, until he could jab a pointy finger into Dib's sternum. "Will you join the Resisty and rail against the might of the Irken Empire with us, hyooman Dib?"

Dib raised an eyebrow. "What, exactly, is your plan here if I say no?"

Nar stared at him, head tilted. "Are you going to say no?"

"Yeah, actually." When Nar recoiled, surprised, Dib rolled his eyes. "Look, I admire what you're trying to do out here--the whole 'rage against the machine' vibe you've got going on here--that's great. But I couldn't join you even if I wanted too. I made a promise to a friend of mine that I wouldn't go trying to get myself killed, and trying to take down the Irken Empire would not only break that promise, but would also probably have him hunting me down to ring my neck. So no, I can't help you."

"Coward," The Irken--Ixane--hissed. "You can help. You are just afraid."

"Well, _yeah_. You look into the face of the Irken Armada and tell me how brave you feel," Dib snarked with a scowl.

Spleenk was the one to step forward this time. "I do not think you understand. The Irken Empire grows bigger everyday. Soon, even the planets held under the protection of past treaties will not be safe. The Almighty Tallest grow more greedy with each new sect of space they conquer and subjugate, and they will not stop until they either have the entire universe at their feet, or they are stopped by _force_." He came closer, holding a hand to his chest. "My people are enslaved, Lard's are all but extinct, and Ixane is the last of her kind. Many species have been wiped out completely, or forcibly assimilated into the Empire as mine was, and so many more will meet the same fate if something is not done to put a stop to it."

There was a pause, full of tension as the room strung itself out on suspense.

Dib pursed his lips, stomach heavy, and sighed. He clenched his fists and hung his head, tilted so that he could still meet Spleenk's eye. "You guys are fighting a noble cause. But while I'm not gonna get in your way, I also won't help you. I'm sorry."

Ixane made a disgusted noise, stalking out of the room and slamming the door behind her. Dib flinched. Nar's expression hardened and he folded his arms stiffly behind his back. Spleenk's face fell and his hand dropped limply to his side from where he had been outstretching it in offering. 

"I see," Spleenk murmured. 

"Untie him then," Nar ground out. "Let him go."

"Just like that? Even though I know where your base is?" Dib blurted out in surprise, eyes wide. 

As Spleenk rounded the chair and cut through his binds, he made a strange rumbling noise. "You said you would not get in our way." He stepped back to let Dib stand up, eyes intense as he met Dib's gaze. "We are holding you to that."

Dib rubbed his wrist and averted his eyes. "...Right." 

Nar led him back through the base to the door in silence, and Spleenk stayed behind to clean up the room. Dib kept his gaze firmly on the ground until they reached the door. Nar let him out, then shut the door in his face without a word. Dib's stomach dropped.

Clenching his fists, Dib turned on heel and began to stalk down the platform, unsure where he was or where he was heading. He just--needed some time to think.

The Resisty was practically begging for the Irken Armada to come after them. Exactly what he didn't need this early into his travels. Or _at all_, really. Exactly what he was trying to avoid. He had promised Zim that he would be careful, and careful didn't include joining a rebellion railing against an Empire bigger than any he'd ever seen. Especially since Zim was part of that Empire, even exiled as he was. Dib knew that while Zim agreed with him about how fucked up the Irken Empire was (on some aspects at least), Zim still held out hope for the rest of his race. Even the Tallest.

Normally, Dib wouldn't have hesitated. Hell, had it been five or even four years earlier, he would have been chomping at the bit to have the chance to take down an evil alien race. But he wasn't twelve anymore. Dib could hold his own against one, two, or even three aliens, but an entire army? Even with the Resisty, it was a thousand to none. 

Besides, Zim had told him that Irkens always honored their treaties, even if they were ridiculous (Zim's own words) and detrimental to the Empire. No one would have to fight at all if they could just sort things out like, you know, actual adults.

But, from Dib's experience with alien races, he knew that a great many of them had not caught up to their age in maturity. Maybe it was just because they tended to live longer than humans, or maybe because some of them were just incredibly stupid, he didn't know. But whatever the case, it wasn't Dib's job to try and take down the Irken Empire. It had taken him _years_ to realize that, and it wouldn't be undone by the desperate words of aliens fighting a losing battle.

Dib didn't know how long he'd been walking, but it must've been for a while, because when he looked up again, he found himself in a completely different area than where he'd started. He looked around curiously, only to find that his surroundings looked kind of familiar.

But Dib didn't have much time to ponder that, because in the next second--everything exploded.

He was flung away from the edge of the platform and slammed into the wall behind him, debris cascading over his head as smoke filled his nose and heat seared his skin. His ears were ringing, the sounds of breaking glass and screams muffled and warbled, like he was underwater. He blinked slowly a few times, then groaned as he tried to sit up. The tiles beneath him were cracked, and the building he was against was on fire, but it was nothing compared to the building across from him, which was nothing more than a smoldering pile of rubble. 

Eyes widening, Dib whipped his aching head around to see aliens of all kinds running and screaming as magenta blips dive bombed them from the sky. Lasers erupted from the front of them and ripped through the tall buildings with ease, sending countless beings to their death. 

He shook his head, his vision cleared, and he looked up. The fleet of bright ships veered down his way, and he glimpsed the icon on the side.

_Irken_.

After that, Dib didn't think. He _moved_.

·⚡·

Zim slammed the top of the laptop down so hard that it cracked, and he let out an enraged roar as he scrabbled at his skull. This was not okay. This was very not okay. ZIM was not okay!

The Dib...was also probably not okay.

He gulped, drew in a shaky breath, and grabbed the laptop. An arm extended from his PAK to store it away, and he hopped off the office chair to storm out of Dib's bedroom. 

Bolting down the halls, he shoved past the Dib-sister and beelined for the door.

"Whoa, hey, where are you going?" She called after him.

"Back to my base. Zim cannot work with such PRIMITIVE tech!" He spat. He marched out of the Membrane house and slammed the door behind him. His communication line peeked out of his PAK. "GIR! Come get me, quickly!"

"_Yes, my master! Hehehe!_"

Zim rolled his eyes and stowed the line away again. His foot tapped impatiently against the ground as he waited with ever growing panic. He had checked the chip had installed in Dib that tracked his vital signs, and it was still showing signs of life, so Zim knew that the idiotic human wasn't dead. But after that power surge...he wasn't sure how much longer that would be the case. 

GIR flew around the corner and skidded to a halt in midair just in front of him. Zim wasted no time hopping up onto him and shouting, "TO THE BASE, GIR!"

"Okie dokie!" GIR screeched before shooting back off down the street, cackling madly.

Zim had hastily donned his disguise before rushing to the Membrane house, but now, as his loosened wig flew off and he pawed at the scratchy lenses of his contacts to pull them off, he found he didn't care. Who cared if the other smelly, inferior humans saw him without his disguise? They were all too stupid to realize what he was while the Dib was shoving proof into their faces, so Zim had very little faith in them now.

GIR crashed into a gnome and faceplanted in the yard, sending Zim flying off him and into the door. Groaning, Zim staggered back to his feet and pushed the door open. 

"Computer! Restart all signal-based tech."

"_Uh, but you said not to--_"

"Do as Zim COMMANDS, you rusted tangle of _useless parts_!" Zim shouted with a venomous scowl up at the cieling.

"_Yeesh, okay. You don't have to insult me,_" The computer said petulantly.

The lights in the base flickered back to life, as did the television. Zim raced over to the trash can and practically lept down it, trying to hurry and get into his base so he could better look for the Dib. At the thought, Zim growled. The door to the elevator opened and he scrambled out into his communication room. 

"That stupid stink-beast better not be dead," Zim snarled as he stopped in front of his communicator and began punching coordinates in. He felt his eyes burn and his antennae went down in horror. Swiping furiously at his oculars, Zim pressed his palms into his face. "No. No! The Dib is fine! He promised!" He shouted, voice shaky. He pressed his hands into his eyes harder. "He promised..."

_You said you wouldn't leave me alone. Don't leave me alone. I can't be alone._

"...Agh! No!" Zim shrieked as he pounced back onto his keyboard with renewed vigor. "You will not leave Zim here to die on this filthy dirtball all by myself! The Dib dies when _I_ say so! I will not be jilted again. I. Am. _ZIM_!" He screeched as he slammed his fist down on the last button.

"Well. I see you haven't changed at all."

And just like that, all the righteous anger that had been building in his chest drained away. Zim paled and his entire body went rigid. He spun around, eyes wide and antennae quivering, to see an achingly familiar figure leaning against the elevator. Crimson eyes burned into him like coals.

"M-My Tallest."

·⚡·

Dib had been running for what felt like hours, pulling people out from underneath rubble, leading them away from the fleet, saving a few from being crushed. Just on the platform he was on, he'd already seen hundreds of dead bodies littering the glass or hanging off buildings or crushed between them.

His legs and lungs burned, but the adrenaline coursing through his limbs kept the exhaustion from seeping in. Two smaller aliens were keeping up with him at his heels as he ran down the platform as yet another shop was reduced to nothing but dust and rock. Skidding to a stop just before it, the two he had picked up (he assumed they were children) stopped behind him. Hefting himself over the decimated wall, he gave them the universal 'stay there' gesture and began to check for survivors.

"Hello! Is anyone here?" Dib yelled, hands cupped around his mouth. In English. His translator had been damaged in the initial explosions, but he hoped that anyone that could hear him would get the gist.

"I-I'm here! Under here," A scratchy voice called back from the right.

Dib lept over the chunks of metal and concrete, eyes scanning for any sign of movement. Before he did, though, he caught sight of something much more disturbing.

A pile of rocks, soaked in something black and viscous, scattered with dull tourmaline. A faded, stained scroll poked out of the middle of it all. Ypmurg.

"Oh, no," Dib whispered, chest tight. He stopped to kneel beside the pile of what used to be a Sedoeg, gently picking up the scroll and holding it tightly. A bout of strained coughing pulled him out of his reverie, and he absently tucked the scroll into his trenchcoat as he restarted his search for the trapped alien. 

He found a hand near the back, smacking at the ground from beneath two hunks of rubble. Dib knelt down to peer in between them, only to find the clerk from Akfj's staring right back at him with a pained expression. 

So that's why this platform was so familiar. Dib shook his head, then edged forward. "I'm gonna get you out of here, alright?"

After a moment of hesitation, they nodded. Dib nodded back, then stood up to set his shoulder against the first rock and push. He felt it shift, widened his stance, and shoved again. It fell back completely, but the balance between the two pieces was apparently more dependant than Dib had thought, because the other one immediately tipped over as well. Dib spun on heel, wide eyed, and caught it with his hands. He was pretty sure he felt something in his shoulder pop. "Go!"

"I-I--I can't move, my wings are cr-crushed!" They squawked in a panic, and Dib grit his teeth.

Shifting onto his back foot, he squinted his eyes shut, heaved, and threw all of his weight against it. It made a loud groaning noise and slowly, slowly, tipped the other way. It crashed to the ground, and Dib saw a few shards of ruby spew up into the air. He winced.

"Come on," He huffed with a cough as he turned around and hefted the prone Blurbon up by the shoulder. A pair of crooked, dust covered wings laid at broken angles against their back, and they whimpered when he jostled them. 

Dib helped them out of the wreckage and onto the platform once more. The other two aliens attatched themselves to his trenchcoat, making shrill, rodent-like noises.

The platform beneath them started to tremble, and Dib blanched as cracks began to spider out towards them from the walls. Making a quick, possibly stupid decision, Dib hooked the Blurbon up by their knees and tossed them the rest of the way into his arms so he could sprint towards the tiles at the edge of the platform, where the cracks had yet to reach. The smaller ones struggled to keep up with him, but they tumbled onto the tile next to him just as he reached his own. Looking frantically down at the numbers engraved on the glass, Dib shouted, "Tiles W204 and W205 to the Resisty headquarters!"

His shoes adhered to the glass, and they were off, shooting away from the platform just as it burst into shards and collapsed in on itself. Dib let out a shaky breath of relief, head drooping over the injured being in front of him as he took a moment to steel himself. Adrenaline or no, his limbs were starting to shake from strain, and he knew he wouldn't be able to stand much longer.

The two children on the tile beside him were still making those shrill noises, though they had quieted slightly. It sounded more like sobs now. Dib swallowed.

When he arrived at the Resisty's building and knocked, the first thing he did when Spleenk opened the door was look him in the eyes, glaring like hell, two kids behind him and a near dead Blurbon in his arms, and said, "I want in."

·⚡·

"The invasion is going well, my Tallest. Though, reports say that more species than intended are making it off planet."

"Hm. Tell them to use more volatile explosives. We're remodeling the whole thing anyway, why not get a head start on demolition."

"There are reports of a team down there, helping people escape. Invader Skutch claims its that Resisty group."

"Ha! That joke? Tell him not to worry about it." 

A single thin, clawed finger swirled a straw around a glass, idle and amused.

"Everyone falls to us eventually."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. I got this done way faster than I thought I would. I was planning Halloween at best, but MIRACLES DO HAPPEN. Purple and Dib won't meet for a little while yet, BUT, my fellow RaZR fans, you'll be getting your fix a little sooner. 😜


	4. Gas Light Blinking On a Broke Down Van

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHIT AIN'T EVEN STARTED YET AND I AM ALREADY THIS 👌FUCKING CLOSE TO SPAMMING EVERYONE ON MY TUMBLR WITH DIB IN COMPROMISING POSITIONS. 
> 
> But I won't because then I'd end up spoiling everything 😅

Dib sat, slouched over, in a tattered chair as a cone shaped alien with a derpy face bandaged his shoulder. Without hands. 

Dib was far too exhausted to even consider launching into an interrogation about that.

Next to him, laying stretched out and unconcious on a cot, was the Blurbon he'd rescued from Akfj's. Their name was Wes. Dib had gleaned that much before they'd passed out from the painkillers pumped into their system. The two kids that Dib had picked up (now orphans--and holy _fuck_ wasn't that something to think about) sat at the foot of Wes' bed and watched in morbid fascination as another alien with four hands meticulously cut away burnt, brittle feathers and entire chunks of wing. Though Dib had never been squeamish around blood, he'd had to turn away. 

The sympathetic pains weren't physical so much as mental. Dib imagined it would be like having his legs cut off. Never able to walk again. It made his stomach churn.

Honey brown blinked back to life when the hatch at the far end of the room slid open. In stepped Spleenk and Nar, the latter of which was smiling smugly.

"Well, well, well. Come crawling back to us, did y--OW!" Nar yelped. Spleenk had pinched him just beneath the horn with a stern look.

"What he _means_ is," Spleenk began lowly. "We are glad that you have come to us in your time of need. If you feel well enough, we'd like to fill you in on a few things." When Dib glanced warily at Wes, Spleenk tipped his head. "They will be fine. Some of the best medically inclined beings in the multiverse are in this room. Now, Dib, if you can stand?" Spleenk ventured after a moment.

After another minute of hesitation, Dib heaved out a breath and pushed himself to his feet. He quietly thanked the cone alien and followed after Spleenk. His fingers scrubbed idly over the gauze of his sling as Spleenk turned and led him out of the medical bay and down the hall of the ship. 

When Dib had first come stumbling back to the Resisty building, he hadn't really had a plan. He had panicked and headed for the only place he knew with any certainty might still be standing under the onslaught of the abrupt invasion. Dib hadn't really been thinking about if they had the ability to treat the wounded, or if they even had a way to get off planet.

There'd been a wildness in his chest that hadn't quelled until Spleenk had ushered him inside the base and to the back, where they were loading several more groups onto a ship much larger the one they'd kidnapped him in. 

Dib had collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, relief sweeping the last dregs of adrenaline from his veins and leaving him with nothing but tiredness and ache.

But as Spleenk led him down the dim hallways, Dib felt his brain booting back up the more the Vortian talked.

"While we haven't had much luck over the past five years in doing any significant damage to the Empire, we have managed to remain safely outside of their jurisdiction--until today, that is. But I sincerely doubt that 739's invasion had anything to do with our organization. The Almighty Tallest are arrogant at best, and haven't ever considered us to be a true threat. And while our numbers are ever expanding, we've stagnated when it comes to weaponry and supplies, which leaves us at even more of a disadvantage."

"Why would you tell me all of that?" Dib prodded after a moment. He raised an eyebrow. "You've got to know that your situation doesn't really sound all that promising."

Spleenk seemed to consider that, but instead of answering, he glanced back at Dib and tipped his head. "I understand you needed aid once the Irkens began their invasion, but I have to ask: why did you change your mind about joining us?" 

Dib's mind automatically shot back to the sight of the sparkling, awe-inspiring city reduced to ash and flames, blood of all colors and viscosity splattered over everything, and bodies of all shapes, sizes, and ages strewn over and across debris like trash. He remembers the horrible piercing screams as everyone around him started falling to their deaths, crushed or burned or mutilated. He remembered saving several people, and being too late for several more. He remembered the feeling of horrified realization that bloomed in his chest as he came to think '_This could've been Earth_'. And then every excuse he'd thrown out so confidently hours before had suddenly ceased to matter.

But Dib didn't know how to put that into words.

So instead, he averted his eyes to the many sets of doors they were passing and murmured, "I'm pretty sure I blew up one of their ships. It was all kind of a blur--" Everything but the faces of the dying and the blood on his failing hands. "--but I remembered something being launched at us out the side of a ship and I caught it and threw it back. It hit the ship and exploded, took out all the buildings around it too. I think it might've been carrying more explosives, because that damage diameter was _insane_..." Dib trailed off awkwardly when he looked up to find both Nar and Spleenk staring at him with wide, shocked eyes. There was a thick moment of silence, before Dib looked away again and cleared his throat. "Anyway, there were three other ships around to witness it. They chased us afterwards so I know they saw me do it. And I don't really remember how we lost them but, my point is that, no matter what I do now, I'm not going to be able to safely navigate through a galaxy predominantly controlled by the aliens I just pissed off, so I figured to hell with it. If they're going to kill me anyway, I might as well go out with my boots on."

"...You blew up a Weapons Barge?" Nar looked flabbergasted, his previous furiously smug expression wiped off his face.

Raising an eyebrow, Dib glanced between them in confusion. "I, uh, I guess? Is that bad?"

Spleenk shook his head slowly. "No one has ever been able to take out an Irken Weapons Barge before, much less _single-handedly_."

"Seriously?" Dib blurted, incredulous. "All I did was toss their own grenade back at them. What, are there no spy movies in space? That's, like, rule one, right next to 'it's always the red wire'."

"I don't know what that means, but..." Nar pursed his lips in contemplation. He and Spleenk shared a look before turning back to Dib. "There's something you should see."

Nar took the lead this time, hooves clicking quickly across the metal floor. Dib had to jog to keep up. They twisted and turned past more and more doors until Dib thought they were just going in circles and somehow Nar had gotten lost in his own ship. But just as Dib readied himself to break the silence, they stopped in front of door no more conspicuous than the rest. 

Nar pressed the pad beside it and the door slid open. He trotted into the dark space beyond, glancing over his shoulder. His previous distaste for Dib seemed to have evaporated. "We'll get you keyed in as soon as possible. You'll be coming in and out of here a lot." He reached over and flicked on the light, revealing a large room covered wall to wall with weapons. Dib's eyes went wide. "We had a military scientist once that would help with upgrades on our guns and cannons, but we lost her a while back to an unfortunate incident with a black hole. But that doesn't matter, because now--" Nar spun on heel and spread his arms wide. "We have you!"

Dib did a double take. "_What_?"

Spleenk came up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. "We do not have a chance at taking on any amount of Irken ships head-on, not with our dwindling supply chain and increase of untrained members. But if you could help us improve our ability with these weapons, then we might just have half a chance at not immediately perishing after all."

Ducking out from underneath Spleenk's hand, Dib held his hands up in the universal 'wait' gesture. "Hold up. You want me to teach you how to use these?"

"Yes."

"Just because I blew up _one_ Irken ship."

"Yes."

"Are you serious right now?" Dib deadpanned, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Although Dib was preening on the inside at the appreciation of his prowess, he was also not so big-headed (ha) as to ignore how little thought went into that decision. When Nar just shrugged in reply, Dib looked up to the ceiling for strength. Steepling his fingers and pressing them against his mouth, he drew in a deep inhale, prayed for patience, and lowered his narrow gaze to Nar once more.

"Okay. Okay then. I'll be your strategist. But there's a few things I wanna address immediately."

Nar raised a brow, but Spleenk dipped his head. "Name them."

He brought down his arms, winced when his shoulder twinged, and gestured half-assedly around the room. "First, don't let just anybody who can blow stuff up have access to your armoury. Irkens can blow stuff up too; would you let one of them in here?"

Nar blanched and shook his head. 

Dib nodded. "Right. Second--and this is the most important thing--_change the fucking name_." When Nar and Spleenk just blinked at him, Dib threw his hands, er, hand up in exasperation and griped, "The Resisty sounds like a boy band comprised entirely of ten year olds. It sounds like a joke. If you want the Irken Empire to start taking you seriously, then you need to have a title people can unite behind. Something that inspires fear and awe when spoken out loud. Like, I don't know. The Resistance. Literally anything would be better than the Resisty."

Nar averted his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, to be fair, we kind of came up with it on the spot. But I agree with you; yours sounds way better, let's go with that!"

Spleenk looked contemplative. "I will let Schloonktapooxis know to change the banner when we find another base to settle at."

"Why do you need another base? Isn't this ship big enough to hold all of you and more?" Dib pointed out.

"Well, yes."

"It makes you less predictable to have a base that can move," Dib said as he moved over to one of the large metal tables set up in the center of the room. He was slowly shifting into The Zone™, furthered by the intrigued expressions on the two aliens' faces. Dib rummaged through the mounds of gutted tech and sheets of paper until he found one that was blank. "And you'd want to scrap the banner entirely. You don't want to announce who you are and what your intentions are to anybody who wants to know, not in a situation like this, at least."

"But then how are people supposed to know who or where we are?" Nar protested even as he came closer to look over the paper Dib was sketching on.

"You don't want everyone to know where you are, especially if we actually manage to piss off the Irken Empire. Unless you _want_ them to be able to pinpoint us," Dib replied pointedly. "And as for how people will know who we are, well," A smirk twisted his lips, just the left side of malicious. "Once we destroy enough of the Armada, they'll know us on sight."

A grin split Nar's face, and even Spleenk looked interested. 

A bandaged hand spun the paper beneath it towards them. "As for the weapons, I can definitely help there."

Nar snatched the paper with wide eyes, gawking, then thrust it at Spleenk. "Why didn't we think of this?"

Spleenk looked over the paper with a bewildered expression. After a moment, he nudged the smaller Vortian. "I told you this was a good idea."

They smiled at each other, elated, but turned their eyes back to Dib when the human picked up one of the guns on the wall and set it on the table. 

"Alright," Dib mused, eyes glinting with something maniac. "Let's get to work."

•⚡•

"I thought you were dead."

"I..." There were very few moments in Zim's life that he had been at a loss for words. This was one of those moments. 

His back pressed hard against the communication panel, his claws dug into the metal so hard it screeched in protest, and his throat closed up. There were so many emotions whirling and spooling together in his spooch, a cocktail of foreign chemicals that he had only just begun to get used to, but this--this was too much. The panic, the hope, the sadness, the anger, all crashing together until his head spun with them all.

Zim swallowed. "My Tallest--"

Tallest Red held up a hand and Zim's tongue curled in on itself. "Save it. I'm talking now." He stepped forward, out of the shadows of the doorway. Zim's claws screeched against the metal again as they tightened enough to dent the panel. Tallest Red came to a stop directly in front of him, forcing Zim to crane his head back to be able meet his gaze. "It's been four years, Zim."

Four years. Four years since Zim had been told what he already knew. That his mission was a joke. An excuse to get rid of him. Four years since he'd been told in no uncertain terms that he would never be allowed back on the Massive, or even _Irk_, ever again. Any Irken ship that came across him in Irken territory was given permission to shoot him on sight.

Three years since Skoodge and Bob had been found helping Zim obtain Irken snacks and maintenance tools. And been subsequently killed.

Two years since Zim started being able to speak about his people with any sort negativity.

One year since he had renounced his kind completely. 

Four months since--

Zim froze.

_Oh._

Then, in a move that shocked Zim to his very core, Tallest Red _knelt down_ and held Zim's face in his claws. His eyes had softened into something nostalgic. "I'm...glad that you're alive."

Zim's brain short circuited. "I--but you--_what_." 

"Oh Zim," Tallest Red sighed. "I didn't want to send you away, but you really gave us no choice. To be honest, I didn't think you would actually listen when we told you to stop calling--you never had in the past. It was a token effort at best. But, I guess I've always had a soft spot for you, even after all you've done."

"My Tallest--" Zim began again, head ducked as his hands shakily came up to circle around the gauntlets encasing Tallest Red's wrists.

"No, you don't have to apologize. But I pulled some strings and--"

And then it was Zim's turn to interrupt, gripping Tallest Red's gauntlets tightly and tearing his face out the Tallest's hold. Hands shaking but eyes narrow, Zim held his Tallest's gaze and said, "Maybe Zim wasn't going to apologize." Crimson eyes blinked owlishly back at him, and Zim bolstered his way forward with blind, hysteric confidence. "Maybe Zim is not sorry."

Tallest Red stared at him for a long, tense minute, in which Zim's chest tightened and he started questioning every life choice that had ever led him to this moment. Then Tallest Red tossed his head back and laughed, long and loud. Zim's antennae, which had stood up like hackles when he'd spoken, flattened back down at the sound. One hand fell from Zim's grasp to clutch at Tallest Red's torso as he huffed out another bout of laughter. 

"You always were trouble incarnate," He chuckled. "I shouldn't have expected that to change over four years."

Zim felt his previous defiant confidence shrivel up and begin to rot with doubt. This--This wasn't Tallest Red. Not as Zim's PAK had drilled into his head, but instead, the Irken he remembered from before the coronations. 

Training sessions, soft laughter, shared snacks in the shadows of pillars and ship hangars. 

But that had been over a _century_ ago, wiped from all history as a mistake of a young Taller. Foolish days, foolish thoughts. Even Zim had been programmed to disregard those memories.

Or, he had been, until recently.

Tallest Red, bringing that back up now, when Zim was at his lowest, an outcast from his own society, a _joke_...

How cruel.

Zim's lips pursed and his expression twisted into something bitter, only to have it smoothed away by Tallest Red's knuckles brushing across his cheek. Mortifyingly enough, his eyes fluttered and a stifled purr rumbled up from his chest.

Lingering vestiges of _'obey the Tallest', 'keep the Tallest happy', 'seek the Tallest's approval'_ flitted through Zim's mind, before he screwed his eyes shut and banished them. No. No more of that. Anything he felt or did was on his own terms now. 

But Irk, he just felt so warm...

Enticed by physical contact, Zim allowed Tallest Red to tug him closer. The chemical cocktail of unleashed emotions roared back to life until Zim was dizzy with them, dazed.

"I can bring you back onto the Massive," Tallest Red murmured. "You can come home."

"Home..." Zim echoed, eyes glazed over. Then, like a lightning strike, Zim remembered his reason for racing back to his base and rebooting his tech. He shook his head, pulling back slightly. "Zim cannot. I have business to attend to here on Earth."

"Oh you don't need to worry about conquering it," Tallest Red replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I can circumvent that."

'_And no one expected me to anyway,_' Zim thought morosely. He edged away a little more. "Well, that's good, because Zim no longer has any intention of taking over Earth."

Tallest Red raised a brow, incredulous. "You don't?"

Zim stepped out of Tallest Red's hold completely and wrung his hands together absently. "Earth is...different. It's not as disgusting and filthy as I thought it was. It has its merits."

Leaning back on his haunches, Tallest Red tipped his head. "You changed your mind?" When Zim nodded, his brow furrowed and he glanced around, like he could see through the metal hull of the base to the surface, searching for the supposed 'merits'. It seemed he couldn't find them. "_Why_?"

Zim opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. He paused, pursed his lips, and twiddled his thumbs. Then, in blooming realization, Zim's eyes widened. He reached forward to grab one of Tallest Red's hands in his, his expression bright and determined.

"Zim can show you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *smacks the roof of this fic* This baby can fit so many BAMF Dib moments in it.
> 
> But seriously, thanks to ETF Dib can canonically punch through solid concrete, and if you think I'm not milking the FUCK out of that you are MISTAKEN.
> 
> And yeah, Dib may have his space adventures, but Zim gets to have EARTH ADVENTURES!!!


	5. Glass Wings, Metal Houses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little short, but hey. Angst, anybody?

It was another day before Dib remembered exactly what had happened before the invasion, and promptly had heart attack. He'd been leaning over one of the larger weapons, elbow deep into its tangle of oddly squishy wires, when his head had suddenly shot up.

"Shit, ZIM!"

He had passed Spleenk on his mad dash for the main room that welcomed new members, who had asked him where he was going, to which he replied, "I have to make a call if I don't Earth may blow up I'll be right back!" all in one breath before reaching the main room and smashing the button on his keychain so hard that he almost broke it.

That sickening feeling of being transported into his ship was full beneath the weight of his panic as he scrambled, queasy for a multitude of reasons, towards the communicator. He slammed his hand down onto it before he could overthink it.

There was a moment of static, a moment too long, before it cleared and a familiar pair of magenta eyes appeared in the screen. "DIB!"

"Zim, hey," Dib said breathlessly. So the Earth wasn't destroyed. That--that was good.

"WHAT HA--why are you dressed like that?"

"Huh?" Dib uttered intelligently. He looked down at himself and sure enough, he was dressed in the uniform and lab coat that Schloonktapooxis--the cone alien--had given him earlier. 

"You look like your progenitor," Zim said distastefully, momentarily forgetting why he was so frantic in the first place.

"Oh, uh." If that wasn't a slap in the face. "I-I guess I do. Well, anyway, Zim, that's not important. Did you ever figure out what was going on with that ship?"

Zim's antennae flattened back against his head, and his eyes went wide. He averted his gaze to the side. "Eeehhh, it was nothing! Just, you know, lots and lots of nothing! So much nothing even GIR was disappointed!"

Dib's brow furrowed. "Zim--"

"BUT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DISCUSSING YOU," Zim declared with a finger jabbed at the sky in proclamation. "What happened to make you lose signal and end our transmission so suddenly?"

"Aha, well," Dib began as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He was suddenly very glad that some of his training sessions as a child had included improvisation. One point for dad. Er, he guessed. "This idiot in a Soar ship knocked into my with their shields on--sent all of my tech fifteen notches to the left, if you know what I mean. _Between_ channels. It's been a pain in the ass trying to get it back up to where it's supposed to be." He finished smoothly.

Sometimes, Dib wondered if his ability to lie so well said something about his character.

Zim narrowed his eyes at Dib, but didn't seem suspicious; more annoyed than anything, most likely. "Well, work faster next time. It is fortunate for you that Zim installed that chip inside you to monitor your vitals, or else the Dib would be in a very bad place right now."

It was a statement set to chide, but Dib had to do a double take at it. "I'm sorry, you did _what_?"

Brow furrowing, Zim tapped at the speakers below the monitor, then leaned closer. "I installed a chip inside your large head to monitor your vitals."

Dib gaped at him. "Why?"

Zim's antennae twitched and he tipped his head. "Do you remember three years ago, when you came to Zim's base all upset and sad-like? You had been diagnosed with something--a human mental illness. It made it difficult for you to process certain emotions that are vital to human society. 'To feel empathy for others' you said. You felt like it made you a bad person--a freak, and you were upset so you came to Zim."

Dib blinked blankly at the screen as realization began to dawn on him.

Zim continued, oblivious to Dib's mounting disbelief. "And, well, you had recently helped Zim out of my schoomp, so Zim decided to repay the favor ahead of time. I placed a device in your brain that would modulate the hormones that produce those emotions and help rewire the connections in your frontal lobe so that you could feel that 'empathy' you were crying about. But Zim wasn't sure it would actually work at the time, so I made sure the device would be able to monitor your heartbeat and oxygen intake as well."

Dib held his hands up, shaking his head. "Wait, wait. Zim, are you telling me you used me as a lab rat to test a cure for sociopathy?" He demanded shrilly. "What the _hell_, man!"

"The Dib was upset! Zim was just trying to help!" Zim argued valiantly, arms crossed defensively as he shuffled his feet away from the monitor. "And besides, it worked, did it not? You can feel empathy now just like all the other Earth worms. Zim fixed you!"

"I..." Dib trailed off, conflicted. On one hand, he was still pissed that Zim had apparently chipped him like a dog, but on the other, well. He remembered the first time he came home on Gaz's birthday with an actual present for her. The look of suspicious surprise on her face, like he wasn't capable of being thoughtful before. And Dib supposed he hadn't been. Scrubbing a hand over his face with a sigh, Dib looked up at Zim through his lashes, weary. "You can't just inject people with things, Zim. People aren't disposable napkins. But I guess I wouldn't even be saying that if you hadn't been able to...fix...me, so I appreciate that you were trying to look out for me. Thank you."

"You are welcome," Zim preened, completely missing the rest of Dib's point. As usual.

Dib rolled his eyes. "Well, if we're all good here and you aren't going to run off and do something dumb because you think I'm dead, then I'm gonna hang up now."

Zim's antennae twitched. "Wait!" He shouted as Dib went to end the transmission. Dib paused, and Zim wrung his hands nervously without looking at him. "Just--be more careful, Dib-thing."

His eyes softened, and Dib gave his best friend a small smile. "I will, Space Boy. I promise to be more regular with my updates too, how about that?"

"Do not get cocky, human."

Dib laughed, catching the edge of Zim's own smile before he reached forward and ended the transmission himself. Understandable. Zim hated goodbyes. 

Leaning back in his seat, Dib ran a hand through his hair. He glanced down at himself and grimaced. "God, I really do look like dad."

He resolved to burn the lab coat as soon as possible. 

•⚡•

When he warped back onto the ship, it was with his things from Tak's in his arms, and the welcome of Nar and Ixane glaring at him. Dib halted and raised an eyebrow. "Uh, hi?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Ixane hissed, incensed.

"Unpacking my shit, mostly," Dib deadpanned. He looked to Nar. "Problem?"

"You contacted an Irken invader." Nar looked anything but pleased, his earlier distaste for Dib rapidly resurfacing. "Not only that, but you did it within range of our ship. A ship filled with rebels and refugees--do you see my _problem_ yet?"

"No, considering the Irken I contacted is currently estranged from the Empire entirely," Dib drawled, unimpressed. He walked over to the registration desk and dropped his things down onto the surface. A duffel bag full of clothes and books, a box full of (technically not stolen) Membrane tech, and a case of water and snacks from Earth. He turned around to face the two once more, leaning back against the desk with his ankles crossed. "Do you really think, after everything I've told you, that I would betray you to an Empire that, if they got wind of me, would want me dead? Why would I help you try to take them down if I was just going to turn around and hand you over? It'd be a waste of effort."

Nar's anger seemed to seep away as logic grabbed hold of him once more, but Ixane wasn't so easily swayed. She growled and took a step forward, trying and succeeding to be menacing. "What other purpose would you have for contacting an Irken, from an Irken ship?"

Dib was starting to get pissed off now. "Uh, because he's my _friend_? And I needed to let him know that I wasn't _dead_, because it's worrisome when your friend gets cut off mid-transmission because they got fucking _kidnapped_."

"You could've contacted him from here. We have communicators--"

"He's hiding from the fucking Empire because they want him dead, you bitch," Dib snarled. "So no, I wouldn't have been able to reach him from any other communicator but mine, which is keyed specifically _for him_. Because as far as I'm concerned, the Irken Empire has done nothing but destroy and take and enslave, and neither of us want any part of it. Not anymore. But here I am, helping you, because I'm not the coward you keep accusing me of being." Dib stepped forward as well, leaning down to jab a finger in her chest. "So you can fuck right off."

With that, Dib picked up his stuff and stalked off down the hall towards the armoury. He hadn't been assigned any sleeping quarters yet, so all of his things could just sit in the corner for a bit until Schloonktapooxis got him sorted. Dib the case of rations and the bag of clothes in the corner, but toted the box of tech tools over to his work table. He could lose himself in tinkering for a bit, maybe calm down enough to think about regretting snapping at Ixane. Dib doubted he would, however. The only Irken aboard a ship of people rebelling against the Irken Empire, and yet she was suspicious of _him_? What a hypocrite.

Though, Dib supposed he didn't actually know for certain if she was the only Irken on the ship. Not with his goggles out of commission. He should probably start on fixing those first, now that he thought about it. It would make fixing everything else ten times easier.

Dib sat down at his work table and moved the large weapon he had been dissecting earlier aside. He tugged the goggles off his face and pulled out his old ones. A hairline crack split the left lenses right down the middle. Dib sighed. 

Well, his eyesight wasn't bad enough that he was practically blind without them, but he supposed it was safer to try and work around the ridge instead of going without them. Dib shed his lab coat, turned around to grab his trenchcoat--only to stop. His trenchcoat was longer laying on the back of his chair. Had someone moved it? Come in and thought it was trash?

'_Well_,' Dib thought tiredly. '_It certainly looked like it, with how many holes there were below the waist. Maybe it's best that it's gone._'

Yeah. Even he didn't believe that one.

He refused to put the lab coat back on though, so he settled for feeling a bit naked, jacketless. Not that the 'new' Resistance uniform was all that modest. It was almost like spandex, except it...really wasn't. It was made of some odd, black fabric that adhered to the body without restricting movement, with deep blue and dark green shards of what looked like crystals embedded all in it, like galaxies. Schloonktapooxis said that they were meant to stop laser beams from piercing skin, but wouldn't stop a knife or anything made of metal. Which was why there were lines of metal--that wasn't like anything on Earth, because the first thing Dib had done was check it for familiar characteristics--curled over the torso and spiralling elegantly down the sides of his legs and arms. Schloonktapookis had told him that they had been programmed to seek and cover a being's most vulnerable places to protect, so every uniform was different for each species. Dib wondered what it meant that the metal had left his _most_ vulnerable region bare. 

And while the uniform wasn't exactly ideal fashion wise, it did ease some weight off his shoulder to have some protection. However, Dib hadn't seen many other aliens wearing them, which he had meant to ask Spleenk about. Dib had a sinking feeling that the answer would be similiar to why everyone wasn't equipped with a gun like he and the top three were.

_"We do not have enough for everybody. I told you, our supply chain has been compromised."_ Spleenk's soft, sorrowful voice echoed through his head.

Dib grimaced and focused back on fixing his goggles. 

He hadn't been at work for very long when the door to the armoury slid open. Dib glanced up idly, then froze. It was Wes.

The blurbon stood awkwardly in the doorway, one hand hanging nervously onto their bicep. They had been clothed in simple white scrubs, the dapper suit they'd had on probably beyond repair. Wes swallowed, met Dib's eyes, and winced. "Um, they gave me the passcode. Can I come in?"

Dib hastily turned off his soldering gun and set it to the side. "Yeah--yeah, of course."

Wes stepped the rest of the way inside, the door hissing shut behind them. They took in a deep breath, then let it out in a shaky huff. "You saved my life." 

Mouth going dry, Dib kept silent. He knew Wes wasn't done, but more than that, well. He didn't really know how to respond.

"And I guess I should thank you for that, but, u-um," Wes went on, their voice breaking a little as they averted their gaze to the floor. Their hand twitched, made an aborted movement towards their shoulder, then fell limp by their side again. They swallowed again with a wobbly smile. "Ha, yeah. Maybe I just wanted some to talk to? I barely know you, of course, but considering everything that's happened...I-I don't have anything else." Wes wrung their hands together, still clad in dusty gloves. Dib stayed quiet, both knowing he should say something back, and yet physically unable to. 

"I mean, I woke up here alive, and that's good. But then they told me, a-actually they didn't really have to tell me, because I could _feel_ it. That my--that they were gone. And then I wondered why they would keep me alive if they were just going to." Wes cut themself off, pointed mouth twisted in displeasure. They shook their head, and the fluffy feathers on either side of their head perked up as they looked up at Dib. "But they told me that you were here, a-and you obviously, you know," Wes guttered out as they waved a hand around the room of dismantled weapons, then at the goggles on the table. "Know what you're doing when it comes to tech. So I just thought that, um...I just thought..." They trailed off, the light of hope in their eye slowly but steadily dimming as their hand twitched towards their back again. Their gaze turned pinpricked in hysteria, and they clawed a hand over their mouth, shaking their head as they coughed out a dersive laugh. "Sorry. This is--I'm--Sorry. This was stupid. I'm sorry for coming in here and just ranting at you right after you saved my life. _Bon_, I'm an idiot. I'll leave--"

Before Dib could fully register what he was doing, he had stood and rushed over to grab Wes's arm before they could leave. Wes, who had spun on heel to, presumably, march out in embarrassment, whipped their head around to stare up at Dib with a wide eye. Dib's chest ached in a way it hadn't in years. He briefly wondered, if it weren't for Zim 'fixing' him, if he would've felt it at all. Closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath, Dib loosened his grip on Wes to press a hand gently between their shoulders. He gave them a soft, sincere look. 

"I'll see what I can do."

Wes's eye sheened with white, pearly tears. They sobbed.

•⚡•

It was later, when Dib had finally been assigned a room, that he saw the two little ones again. He had fixed his goggles, so he could see that they were Wolbs. Whatever those were. They were standing in front of Dib's room, whispering to one another in their chirrupy language, and as Dib came up behind them he could make a few words out.

"...think we really should have?"

"It...a great idea! It shows gratitude."

"Still, is it not--"

The smallest one, the boy, caught sight of him and let out a squeak of alarm. The sister followed, spinning around to stare at him in shock, before grabbing her twin and bolting off down the hallway. Dib raised an eyebrow, bewildered, but decided not to question it. He slipped into his quarters with a sigh, leaning against the door and banging his skull back into it in exhausted frustration. Why--_why_ was he making promises he couldn't keep? Pinching the bridge of his nose, Dib flicked on the lights and made for his cot, only to stop in his tracks.

There, laying on his bed, was his trenchcoat. The tail of it had been mended in an odd fashion, but it had been mended nonetheless. Dib swept forward to pick it up, marveling at the thick zigzag of loose metal now holding the tail to the rest of it. Dib ran it through his hands. It felt like chainmail, just tighter knit and lighter in shade, stretching in a slight slant across the waist of his coat. 

Dib slid it on and gave an experimental spin, humming in satisfaction when it swept open just like always, just with more flare. He grinned and sat down on his cot to run his hands over the metal again, awed. He thought back to the two kids, the twins, consorting outside his room and he chuckled. 

Maybe this was why Dib kept promising people impossible things. Because, at the end of the day, it was those impossible promises that kept hope and their people alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually thinking about whats-her-face's spacesuit from Monsters vs. Aliens when I was figuring out the uniform, which, now that I think about it, are all just glorified onesies. Bets on who gets one next? >:3


	6. Seven and a Hoard

Dib was startled out of his reverie when the door to the armoury (some of the Resistance's members had started calling it a lab, for how often Dib could be found in there tinkering with their weapons) slid open and a panting Meepri--a cousin to the Meekrob--skidded to a halt in the doorway, eyes wide. 

"A ship just requested access to ours. Nar told me to fetch you; they're letting them aboard in the lobby." She wheezed out, before collapsing against the wall in exhaustion. 

"I'm on my way," Dib muttered as he stood and strode over to the door. He handed the poor Meepri a juice box from the depths of his coat pockets, who took it with a happy cry and immediately sucked it dry. She perked back up, glowing, and flew off down the hall. Dib jogged after her, vaguely concerned as he rounded corners to the main lobby. There, he could see that another ship was indeed boarding them, Spleenk and Schloonktapooxis helping people off the bridge as Nar directed a few other members to make sure the others were safe. Ixane stood to the side, arms crossed as she narrowly surveyed the enroaching crowd, suspicious. If nothing else, Dib conceded reluctantly, she was the only one that seemed alert.

Dib approached Nar slowly, eyes darting between parts of the new crowd that had been sectioned off. He couldn't tell whether that was smart or foolish. "What've we got?"

"Ah, Agent Dib. Good." Nar clasped his hands behind his back. "This is a group that claims to want to join us. Their Captain said that they escaped a highly guarded Irken prison and heard of us 'through the grapevine', whatever that means."

"If it was a highly guarded prison, then why weren't there casualties?" Dib muttered as he looked over the ever growing flow of refugees with a raised eyebrow.

"According to their captain, there were. Heavy ones. Apparently they lost more than half of what they originally started the uprising with," Nar responded lowly, a frown on his lips.

Dib blinked. "And they're all..."

"Vortians," A new voice rasped from behind them, haggard and vaguely familiar. 

Spinning on heel, Dib came face to face with the only other Vortian he'd seen on Earth. He gawked, shocked. "Prisoner 777!"

The Vortian tipped his head at Dib. "Just call me Seven. Do I know you?"

Dib swallowed. "Um, no, not exactly. I'm--I-I'm from Earth, if that clears anything up." He winced when he saw Seven's eyes widen as well. "Yeah."

"So _you're_\--?" Seven cut himself off, bewildered as he looked between Nar and Dib with ever growing disbelief. He shook his head after a moment, a frantic, desperate look entering his eyes as he stumbled forward and grabbed Dib by the shoulders. "My children. Are my children alive? Are they okay? Please, I need to know if they're okay!"

"Oh, right," Dib uttered as he grasped Seven's wrists warily. "Zim let them go a few years ago. I'm pretty sure they're slumming it Morocco. Your daughter made a bid for Minister."

Seven collapsed against Dib with a sob of relief, and Dib patted his back awkwardly as the poor Vortian clung to his trenchcoat. This got...very uncomfortable, very quickly.

Nar looked between Seven and Dib with raised eyebrows, but Dib just shrugged helplessly. "You know each other?"

Leaning back with a sniff, Seven nodded. "Not well, of course, but we have a mutual...aquaintence. Last I heard, this human was the only thing standing between Zim and the destruction of his planet." He gestured to Dib, then tipped his head at him. "Though you were much smaller when I saw you last."

A flush tinted Dib's cheeks, and he averted his eyes with a weak laugh. "Yeah. It's been a few years."

Seven sighed, putting a hand to his temple. "Well, in any case, I am glad to see someone I know to be competent here. To be honest, I have not heard much about this Resistance, but it seems they have not made much progress." Seven glanced at Nar, who scowled. "I mean no offense, of course," He exclaimed hastily, before turning back to Dib. "But if you could be such a deterrent as a child, I can only imagine what you could do now."

Uncomfortable with the beaming look Seven was giving him, coupled with Nar's considering glance, Dib took a step back and held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa, hold up. Look, as flattering as that is, I didn't actually _do_ all that much as a kid. Yes, I was obsessed with stopping Zim, but there weren't all that many plots of his that were actual threats. He's a genius, but he gets distracted pretty easily."

Seven raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you manage to subvert the destination of a black hole that would've sent you and your classmates to a horrible death?"

"Um, yes, but I wasn't--"

"And didn't you stop your planet from being squished beneath Mars by piloting another planet-ship to destroy Mars yourself?"

"Well, yeah, but--"

"And did you not stop yet _another_ Invader from filling your planet's core with snacks and subsequently terminating it?"

"I had--"

"And didn't you--"

"How do you even _know_ all of this?" Dib interrupted, incredulous.

"Zim liked to complain about you. A lot." Seven shook his head. "So I suppose you're also the reason he has given up conquering the planet entirely!" He said with a laugh.

Dib pinched the bridge of his nose and grimaced. "No, actually. Zim, uh, he kinda had an existential crisis and finally accepted that his mission was fake. We've actually been friends for years now."

Seven blinked. "Oh."

Nar was gawking at Dib again. Dib shifted away from them both, unnerved. He had never really looked back on his battles with Zim with anything other than exasperated nostalgia. But now, the way Seven had put it, Dib could see that he _had_ been the only thing standing between Zim and the rest of humanity. That thought was a bit frightening, if he were being honest. 

Dib had always liked to believe that even if Zim had managed to take him out of the equation, that the rest of humanity would rise up in his place. That they hadn't really _needed_ him, in the end, even if he had wanted them to. But now, looking back and realizing that a good portion of the population saw Mars literal inches away from touching the planet's surface and _still_ refused to acknowledge the truth...

Humanity was blind. And if it weren't for Dib being an obsessive megalomaniac as a child, they would probably be extinct. 

It was a sobering thought.

Dib swallowed.

"I have to go. My projects are time sensitive," He mumbled before hurriedly exiting the conversation and fleeing back to the armoury.

•⚡•

Zim twiddled his thumbs nervously as he waited just outside the large ship now parked in his backyard. It had been a week since Red had landed on Earth, and Zim was running out of options. Everything that Zim had showed Red, the taller remained unimpressed with what Earth had to offer. So it had come to Zim pulling out his last resort--the Ledge.

The Ledge was a particular spot that Dib and Zim had claimed for their own years ago, just when they had started to become friends. It was something Dib had showed him, an extension of trust that had solidified their roles in each other's lives. It was _their spot_. Zim didn't like that he was having to give it up so early, but he could feel it in his spooch; he was running out of time to change Red's mind. 

And if the Ledge didn't work, then there would be no changing his mind.

Zim's antennae were nearly vibrating in his anxiousness, wishing desperately that he could bring GIR with him as well. But GIR would ruin any outing in a heartbeat, however good-naturedly, and so Zim always opted to leave him at home. Besides, if GIR said something incriminating, either about Dib or Zim himself, then it really was all over.

The door of the ship hissed open, and Zim jolted. He turned to see Red stepping out onto the grass, clad in a slightly simplier version of his original uniform, a slat of metal extending from his PAK over his head to shield him from the drizzly rain. Zim felt slightly foolish for weilding a human umbrella at the sight of it. Red grimaced up at the grayed sky before switching his attention to Zim. "Why are we venturing out when the it's raining acid?"

"The acid has its uses," Zim said haltingly, as he handed the umbrella to one of his PAK extensions so it could carry it for him. After a moment of hesitation, Zim walked forward and extended a hand towards Red. "It is crucial for what Zim wants to show you."

"Is it?" Red mused, even as he took Zim's hand in his. "Lead the way then." He pressed his lips to Zim's knuckles.

Zim's cheeks filled with a bright blush and he yanked their joined hands away so hard that Red stumbled. Before he could say anything, Zim had strode off down the beaten path towards the wooded area at the edge of the housing units, dragging Red behind him.

Red huffed, but allowed the smaller to yank him through the trees and down a narrow, barely beaten path until they came to a large slab of rock. He blinked up at it. "Now what?"

Zim's PAK legs emerged carefully--reluctantly--to set into the soft dirt of the forest floor. "Now we climb."

Confused, but intrigued, Red followed Zim up the steep rockface with relative ease, thanks to the maneuverability of their metal appendages. Just before the top of the slab, Zim stopped and retracted his PAK legs, leaving only the arm still holding the umbrella above his head. A moment of hesitation, and then Zim's brow furrowed, determined. He reached up and pulled himself up onto the Ledge.

'_This will work. This **has** to work._'

He turned and offered a hand to help Red up as well. "This is my Ledge," He murmured as he led Red across the slim, flat surface of the small cliff. Zim plopped down, then patted the space beside him, urging Red to do the same. Red gave the stone a baleful look, but sat. Zim's antennae flicked up, nervous yet pleased. "It should happen in a moment."

Red tore his eyes away from Zim to look out at the scene before them. The slab of rock they were perched on was set in the seeming center of a much larger circle of mountains that created and fell just before the reached the edge of the forest. It was just in sight of the city, its oddly rectangular buildings mere gray shadows in the distance. But on both mountain faces, angled on either side of the ledge were two massive waterfalls. A thick, dark mist hung in the tops of the trees, shielding the ends of the falls from sight. 

Red didn't particularly understand why Zim had brought him here, or why Zim had claimed such a dismal place as his own. But he was trying to edge his way back into the smaller's good graces, so he worked his jaw and uttered, "It's very...spacious."

But Zim just shook his head. "Not yet, just--wait. Watch."

He settled back, the slat above his head expanding a bit to keep the stray rain droplets off him. However little they were, they still weren't pleasant. 

Red was rapidly getting bored, but after about a minute or so, Zim's antennae flicked again and caught his attention. Zim let out a soft breath of relief and leaned forward a bit. Red didn't understand why until he spotted a glimmer of something blue flash in the mist before fading. Then again, and again, in separate spots, until they were like strobe lights pulsing in the treetops. 

The clouds separated slowly, displaying the Earth's sun in its setting cycle, but as soon as the rays of light broke through the cloud cover, the air surrounding the two Irkens lit up with brilliant color. 

Recoiling slightly, startled, Red's eyes went wide at the abrupt change in scenery. 

The angles of the waterfall, coupled with the light drizzle of rain, acted as precise prisms that sent arches of blistering color curving over them in bars of refracted light, meeting several feet above the Ledge and spiraling down to reflect off the rippling mist below. 

Bewildered, Red turned towards Zim to speak, only to falter.

Zim was leaning forward, hands placed on the edge of the rock eagerly. The stripes of colors--**Rainbows**, Red's PAK supplied--shone across Zim's eyes, throwing the pretty shade of berry pink into stark contrast, until Red felt like he was staring into a nebula. The fiery stains of orange, navy, and red from the sinking sun flittered around the edges of Zim's face, shadowing him in a beautiful glow of gold. Red was entranced.

Zim bounced a bit on his haunches, antennae near vibrating with excitement as he pointed over the edge towards the trees. "Look! Here they come!" 

Before Red could ask, the first bird burst out of the kaleidoscopic mist below, arcing back with a shrill cry and diving back in. It was a luminescent shade of electric blue, with translucent feathers and an odd tail of stingers. It was soon followed by another bird, and then another, and within moments the polychrome sky was swarming with the startlingly bright avians, crisscrossing streaks of toxic azure between the rainbows. 

"What are those? They do not look native to this planet," Red inquired absently, captured by the sights before him.

"They are not," Zim confirmed with a sneaky glance at Red. He smiled when he saw the struck expression on the taller's face, turning his gaze back to the birds. "Or, they weren't. A gene splicing experiment of--" _Dib's_. "--a human inventor got loose and bred faster than he could catch them, so they ended up infesting this forest. They feed off bacteria and light, which is why they only come out when the sun is out as well. The, er, inventor called this place a geographical anomaly, given the odds of perfect angles lending themselves to creating a spherical prism of light when it rains--"

And then Zim was cut off, because Red was kissing him. He hadn't noticed the way Red had been staring at him, the intensity of his gaze that only grew as Zim grew passionate about the subject he was speaking of. 

Back in the academy, underground, the lights had always been dim and filtered to conserve energy for the surface. But now, kissing Red in a literal new light...it was _blistering_. It felt dizzying and raw and _good_, much more overwhelming than the stolen kisses of their youth, shadowed in dark corners and smothered by secrets. This felt so different that Zim's head swam trying to process it.

When Red pulled away, Zim heaved in air that he didn't need, shuddering as Red touched their foreheads together to entwine their antennae.

"_°I feel you like **aeshajnun**.°_" Red breathed, sounding painfully surprised.

"°_I..._°" Zim began. His jaw clenched. "Am still angry with you. You sent me off on a false mission to get rid of me." He felt Red go still, be Zim didn't open his eyes, digging his claws into Red's corset. Zim wasn't done. "You allowed me to make a fool of myself in front of the entire Empire. And before that, you abandoned me for your title. Before that, you kept me like a filthy little secret." Zim was shaking by the time he was done speaking, his entire form trembling with barely contained emotion. He would not shout. He was done shouting. Done trying to force people to hear him. If Red wanted him, truly, then he was going to have to listen. 

Zim grit his teeth. "But you are still Zim's _ahbak_, no matter how hard I tried to forget. I am tired of being hidden away and spoken of like a bad joke, Red." 

Red's grip on him tightened, and the antennae wrapped around his own began to vibrate at a comforting frequency. The sweet ring of Red's concern was a siren song to Zim's mind, so long away from other Irkens and even longer from Red, that he couldn't help but melt into it. He tried to sing something back, but all of a sudden his oculars were burning and he let out a throaty whine, his sorrow reaching up to claw at him until he could do nothing but let Red tug his trembling form into another kiss. Zim clutched at Red's chestplate and kissed him back desperately, an agonized clicking starting up at the base of his throat and rising in volume until he was choking on it. 

When Red pulled away again, he didn't lean back. He scrubbed his cheek across Zim's, then turned to draw his tongue along the underside of Zim's oculars, which had spilled over without him realizing it. "Hush, _aeshajnun_, don't cry. I can make sure you feel seen again. I can make you feel loved again. You do not have to hide any longer, Zim. Not while you're with me." 

Zim's clicking quieted slightly, and Red purred in response. Though the change in title confused Red (had his little one truly been away from Irk long enough to forget their customs?), he decided to let it go. In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't matter. If he had forgotten, Red would just have to remind him. And while he still didn't understand what Zim saw in this little ball of dirt, he supposed he was charmed. It had its moments. 

It would be the perfect space to convince Zim to come back home, after all. What better a place to replace memories than where they were made? 

Though Red hated to admit it, perhaps what Purple had said before he left had some merit. As far as strategies went, at least. 

'_Seduce and subdue, Red,_' Purple's voice echoed in a low, condescending croon. '_Seduce and subdue._' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have lots of headcanons for Irken language, and it's mostly based on Arabic :D (No shit I've started half a damn dictionary for it whoops). I'm not gonna put the meanings here, because I'll explain them later in the story and I know some people like to learn that way, but for those that don't wanna wait, my growing dictionary is [here](https://www.quotev.com/story/12327465/HC-Irken-Dictionary)
> 
> This chapter was a little late getting out because I wanted to work on Broken Glass for Kriss, in honor of their Tumblr being reinstated after being mass reported and taken down. 
> 
> ON THE BRIGHT SIDE. We're only looking at another chapter or two before Our and Dib meet! YAY! Or, well, not yay. Not for Dib anyway 😅.


	7. The One Who Was Right All Along

'_How did this happen?_' Dib thought wildly as he hid behind an overturned hovercraft, chest heaving. Gunfire and screams echoed loudly in his ears, the smell of smoke catching in the back of his throat, thick enough to choke on. '_How did this happen?_'

•⚡•

Seven entered the Lab, as it had been lovingly dubbed by the rest of the new Resistance, to find Dib in the middle of an operation. The Blurbon, Wes, was laid out on top of one of the long metal tables, unconscious. Dib looked up, blinking his eyes wide through his goggles before turning back to his work.

"Hey Sev. What's up?" He mused distractedly.

"I assume the solution I proposed went well," Seven ventured in lieu of an actual answer.

"Better than." Dib grinned. "'S why I was able to start today at all. Thanks for that, by the way. I was stuck on it with no foreseeable answer."

"Ah, I am sure you would have found your way around it eventually." He came closer to observe, the files in his hands momentarily forgotten. 

Dib's hands were tucked into deep orange gloves that stretched up to his elbows, Wes' dark blood speckled up the wrist and stained over the fingers as he worked to place meticulous sets of wires and sensors into their shoulders. Seven looked over the prosthetic wings that were currently pinned against Wes' back as well. The glass blown feathers shimmered in the lowlight of Dib's workspace, throwing prisms across the table below and highlighting the strains of silver metal within, like veins.

Seven hummed as he watched. "You know, I have never seen someone attempted to replace wings. Arms, legs, tails--of course. But wings are much too intricate. I have never known anyone to try. Well, until you did, of course."

Dib chuckled, still focused on painstakingly attaching wires to nerve endings. "If you hadn't suggested using scrap metal as conductive circuits for the primaries, I don't think I would've managed it either. Being crazy enough to try doesn't mean anything if you don't get results."

"I suppose that's true..." Seven murmured.

"So, any particular reason you came to distract me?" Dib inquired goodnaturedly.

"Well, it is actually relevant to your patient, here. I was looking for her."

"They're a they," Dib corrected absently as he secured the last sensor in place.

"Ah, right. They, then. They input a request with Lard Nar to be dropped off at their home planet, and we are currently close enough to it that we should be there in a week, maybe a few days more. I just wanted to let them know."

Dib fumbled for the needle next to the bottle of toxic green antiseptic with a nod. "I'll let them know."

Seven looked down at Wes' slack face and tipped his head. "When will the sedatives wear off?"

"Oh, they're not sedated," Dib replied as he began to stitch up the flesh around the new appendages. Bless alien technology. "The shipment is late, again. And I see that look on your face, no, I didn't just knock them out to do this. I found a mini bottle of tequila in the bottom of my bag and it turns out that their species are Universal lightweights." Dib laughed quietly to himself as he gave Seven a low glance, as if to say, '_And you doubted me_'.

Seven cleared his throat and inclined his head. "Of course. If you would, Agent, just ensure that they look at this when they regain consciousness." 

"Roger," Dib murmured with a half-assed salute.

Bewildered, Seven gave an awkward wave back and laid the files at the end of the table before exiting. Dib rolled his eyes, amused.

Dib finished stitching up Wes, and leaned back to watch with fascination as the thread dissolved and healed the feathery flesh into place with it. So cool. Dib had no idea when Wes would wake up, but they would probably want something for their hangover when they did. They'd also need to do tests to make sure that Dib did everything correctly and nothing was screwing with the sensors. Also the fact that, you know, the prosthesis would actually get them airborne.

Dib leaned back with a sigh, peeling off his gloves and tossing them aside for the moment. He ran a hand through his hair and surveyed his work with a critical eye. Flittering doubts and second guesses flashed through his mind, but he batted them away.

It was fine. He had done everything right. It was fine. Wes would be fine.

Truthfully, Dib had been about ready to give up on this whole endeavor until Seven had pointed out that the lining of the gun barrels he'd been taking apart were made of a lighter metal than lithium. Without it, Dib would've never have been able to secure the wires in a way that would enable Wes to get off the ground. He'd reinforced the glass of the feathers when he'd melted down the scopes to spin them, so they wouldn't break on impact. Dib had tested a couple feathers, and found that they could at up to a ton or two of pressure before shattering.

He was pretty proud of the wings he'd fashioned for Wes. If they worked like he planned, it might've been his greatest work yet. 

A soft groan jerked Dib out of his reverie, and he snapped his head around to see Wes stirring. He hurried over to help them sit up and hand them a juice box. (For some reason, juice boxes were never in short supply).

"How do you feel?" Dib ventured carefully.

"Like I got hit by a meteorite," Wes rasped, snatching the box and nursing it with an expression of relief.

"Yeah, hangovers are a bitch," Dib said wryly, lips quirked up. His brow furrowed then, and he bit his lip. "And, uh, how's the afflicted area holding up?"

Blinking widely, Wes' pointed mouth parted in--well, Dib wouldn't say an O, more of a V--of surprise. "I-I can feel them! They're--" Wes cut themself off as the prosthesis began to stretch and extend, slowly, like Wes was afraid to move them. Dib stepped back as Wes spread their new wings to their limit, prismed feathers quivering as they gave them an experimental flap. Wes let out a choked, shaky laugh. "I have wings. My wings are back. Y-You gave me my _wings_ back!" They cried before flinging themself at Dib, wrapping him in a tight hug before leaping back and into the air. 

Spluttering, downy feathers in his face, Dib swatted at the strays. "Wai--wait! Wes! We need to run tests before--"

Wes took to the air, did a gleeful spin, then swooped out of the Lab with a laugh. Dib yelped and took off after them, coat flaring and jingling behind him as he did so. While he was ecstatic to see that the wings he'd made worked, he'd rather know how _well_ they worked before Wes went flitting around too high.

Dib followed the sound of excited whooping and the flash of white around sharp corners until he skidded to a stop in the doorway of the food court, chest heaving. All the aliens, refugee and Agent alike, were staring up at Wes with wide eyes as the Blurbon arched with the high ceilings and went plummeting back to the ground in a dive. Dib felt his stomach do a terrified backflip into his throat, and he let out a spastic wheeze. But Wes didn't crash into the floor. They flared their wings out at the last second and curved away from the tables and back up towards the ceiling, giggling all the while. Dib felt like he'd just had his soul sucked out through his mouth, dementor style, and slumped against the doorway with a relieved groan.

Wes spotted him and beamed, bolting back down and slamming into Dib at full speed. They knocked them both to the ground as they embraced Dib again, chittering out multiple thanks in their language, as it seemed they were too overwhelmed to speak in English. Dib coughed out a breath and adjusted his goggles, which had been knocked askew when he been tackled to the floor. 

Well. At least everything seemed to be working correctly.

"Well, you're very...spritely. How do they feel?" He asked after a moment. Unlike Seven, Wes' weight didn't feel awkward. Maybe he was just overthinking things again, but ever since Zim had told him about the chemical balancer he'd implanted, Dib had to wonder. 

"They feel...heavy. But it's a good weight," Wes struggled to say, looking up at him with a big, earnest eye. "Thank you, Dib of Earth."

"...Just Dib is fine." Dib sat up, gently pushing Wes off of him. "There's something else as well. Seven asked me to tell you that your request to go home had been approved, and that we should be there within the next week."

Wes grinned at him, elated. "This is the best day of my life!"

•⚡•

The planet Blurb was just as one would expect a planet populated by one eyed, dapper bird people to be. It was covered by a dense forest of white and blue trees, the foliage ranging from azure to teal to indigo. The dwellings were mostly in the trees as well, made of a soft hay-like substance and molted feathers, stones and shiny things thrown in here and there.

The trees weren't very high, but they were squat enough to hold the bird houses without difficulty. Apparently, there was an underground predator that preyed on Blurbons, but Wes got distracted by the sight of their planet before Dib could ask them to elaborate on what exactly was considered a 'predator' on Blurb.

So now Dib was standing on a platform next to Spleenk, Nar, and Ixane as Wes rushed into the arms of a flock of Blurbons that looked just like them. Dib warily eyed the dirt below, cautious, but was jerked from his thoughts by the loud squawks of alarm that echoed from Wes' family. (He supposed. Did Wes' people even have families? Were they a collective? All for one? One for all?)

Wes was speaking rapidly to the Blurbons now examining their wings with stunned, horrified, and critical eyes. Then Wes pointed right at Dib, and he found himself on the business end of several pointed glares.

He set his jaw and lifted his chin. No one could tell him that what he'd done wasn't what was right. Even as his translator picked up a muttered, "Against nature...Insulting..."

A smaller Blurbon with dark plumage and a bright green suit, glared straight at Dib, and hissed, "›_Freak!_‹"

Dib spun on heel abruptly, shoulders stiff. "I need to finish up my upgrades. Spleenk, Nar."

There was a squawk, and then Wes had smacked the smaller upside the head and chased after him. They caught Dib's arm before he could take more than three steps towards the ship. "Wait, Dib!" Wes cried. Their talons dug briefly into his arm, breaking skin, before loosening up again. "Sorry, they're just being Gaschlorks. My planet isn't exactly with the times either. Please, uh--you can stay for dinner! All of you!"

"Thanks, Wes, but I'll have to pa--"

"Of course we'll stay!" Nar interrupted. Dib frowned. "No use saying no to food, after all."

"Really? Oh, great!" Wes chirped, before darting off to go make preparations, and (Dib was assuming) argue with their family some more.

Dib walked hastily back over to Nar and grabbed his shoulder. "You can't be serious," Dib began lowly, incredulous. "We can't stay that long. Seven agreed to watch the ship but he can barely fly it. Not to mention that it just sitting outside orbit is going to draw attention. We can't--"

Nar shrugged him off, gaze disapproving. "Oh please, Agent. We need to establish a good relation with these people. We need all the allies we can get. I am not leaving early just because the natives don't like you."

Then he clomped off towards the cluster of Blurbons, Ixane close behind. Leaving Dib with Spleenk. Dib's eyes narrowed, a dark look zeroed in on Nar's retreating back. He nearly hissed when Spleenk placed a claw on his arm, jerking it out of reach. He snapped his head around to glance at the Vortian. "This won't end well."

Spleenk pursed his lips, but didn't reply.

•⚡•

Dib was right. 

This was definitely _not ending well_.

They'd made it two and a half hours. Two and a half hours before Seven sent them a distress signal and immediately after, the planet itself came under fire. Irkens had landed on Blurb. Because Lady Luck was an absolute _bitch_.

Not thirty minutes ago, their little seeing-off party had sat down at a table strung up between treehouses, with every single one of the Blurbons (barring Wes of course) had been not so discreetly glaring at them all. Mostly Dib. Then the call came in, Spleenk got half a warning out, and then everything fucking exploded. 

So here Dib was, crouched behind a broken hovercraft that had crashed to the forest floor with him as he tried to keep the wingless Blurbon that had been using it from bleeding out. This one was older, male, and while he was surly, he was also in position to refuse Dib's help. An ear-splitting cackle came from close by, far too close by, and Dib pulled out one of his guns with a curse. He glanced at the wounded Blurbon, ordered, "Stay here!" and then vaulted over the hovercraft and immediately aimed for PAKs. They were easy to spot in the shadows of the thick trunks, the lights on them like beacons in the dark.

The gun Dib was wielding was an unfinished product. He'd put it in his pocket because the blasts it put off were far too strong and volatile, and he didn't want it just laying around in the Lab. He was glad that he hadn't finished it now, because it packed a strong enough pulse to knock an Irken completely offline, even if the kick was hell to deal with. 

Noticing the new threat in their midst, Irkens whirled on him from all sides and lunged. But years of fighting Zim hadn't left Dib with nothing. He dove into a roll and fired off three clean shots when he popped back up again. Honed instincts allowed him to dodge the swipe of a PAK leg that surely would've chopped his whole head off, and kick out the Irkens' knees so he could get at their back. Once he'd cleared most of the Irkens near them, Dib raced back to the hovercraft and hoisted the crippled Blurbon onto it. 

"Is there another way up?" Dib panted as he swiped blood out of his eyes, the new cut over his eyebrow bleeding sluggishly. 

"The...stairs...in the trunk...hollow," Was the rasped reply as a shaking talon pointed towards one of the smaller trees. The Blurbon was out of it, blood loss and smoke inhalation probably not doing much to help keep him conscious.

Dib clicked the button on the hovercraft, sent a prayer to whatever God happened to exist, and let out a breathless laugh when it spluttered and rose off the ground. "Yes! Okay, stay with me. I'm gonna get you outta here, alright, you're gonna be fine," He reassured as he grabbed one of the cracked divots and began to race for the tree, pulling the craft behind him. Nearly slamming into the bark. His hands instantly started clawing for crevices. "Ah, um, where is--aha! Let's go!"

The Blurbon choked out a painful sounding cough in return. Dib threw open the hatch he'd found and bolted up the stairs there, not bothering to close the door behind him. They were carved, wooden and ornate, but he didn't have time to look admire them. Legs and lungs burning, Dib ran up five flights of stairs and burst out of the door at the top. Up this high, the smoke was thinner but still present. Dib placed the injured Blurbon against the wall, then scrambled around in the drawers and cabinets of the place for something to staunch the bleeding with. 

An unused roll of gauze sat under the sink, and Dib popped back up with a sound of triumph. He hurried over to the Blurbon and wrapped his laser wound as best he could. Then he cut off another foot or so of gauze and wadded it up. He thrust it into the Blurbon's hand and forced it up over his mouth. "Breathe through this. It'll filter out some of the smoke."

Another explosion boomed, to the South of them, and Dib whirled on the spot. Shit, the others.

"I'll be back," He promised, before taking and running leap out of the door and landing precariously on the limb of a taller tree. Heaving himself up, he inched his way along the branch until it was thick enough to run on. He lept from tree to tree until he could locate the sound of Nar's panicked voice. He saw him and Spleenk, facing down a group of Irkens, with Ixane nowhere in sight. He'd examine that later.

Dib didn't waste any time. He took out four Irkens before anyone else realized he was there, then stared down, wide eyed, as a shot fired right into his chest and sent him stumbling back. The sparkling gems of the suit glimmered and shone for a moment, before dulling back down. Right. He was wearing laser proof clothing. That made things _much_ simpler.

He took out the other three without much of a problem, given that they were all a little shell-shocked that he wasn't, you know, _dead_. Then he was stalking over to Spleenk and Nar and opening his mouth before he fully realized what he was doing.

"I have a plan--" '_I do?_' "But I need you to buy me some time and get all the Irkens over in this general area. Twenty to twenty five foot radius, understand?" '_Oh yeah, I do!_'

"W-What are you planning to do?" Spleenk asked, as Nar was still staring at him in bewilderment.

"Leave that to me. Just catch their attention and get them over here. Signal me when you have. I'll take care of the rest." When Spleenk and Nar just continued to stare at him, he felt something in his chest snap. "_Now_!" He barked, eyes wild as he pointed towards the sounds of fighting below. 

Spleenk jumped and nodded, grabbing Nar's arm and dragging him off as well. With a huff, Dib knelt down and pulled a few stray bits and bobs that he snagged from his worktable as well out of his pocket. Then he focused on dismantling his gun, keeping part of his attention on the platform around him as he worked. It was meticulous, and insanely dangerous, but Dib felt like he was floating in a fuzzy place of hyper focus. He doubted he would remember much of this later.

Miraculously, he finished up just as Nar called for him. He peeked over the platform to see Spleenk and Nar running, a whole hoard of Irkens at their heels. 

"Damn, that was fast," Dib muttered as he straightened up. He waited for Spleenk and Nar to hit the steps, then slammed his fist down on the button. 

The pulse of energy that burst out from the crude magnifier that Dib had made was groundbreaking. _Literally_. The hoard of Irkens screamed and sparked, the nearest having their skin charred black as the thing that kept them alive betrayed them. The dirt below them cracked and splintered, and even as the Irkens fell, unconscious, to the ground, the volume of the destruction around them didn't decrease. Then, between the trees across from the platform, a large, leathery worm snarled up from the ground, several rows of rotating, serrated teeth gleaming in its roaring maw. 

Dib swore and hastened to help Spleenk and Nar back onto the platform. He may have been able to take care of the Irkens--assuming Spleenk and Nar had managed to lure them all over--but he had no idea what the fuck to do about that thing. Apparently Nar and Spleenk had no idea either, because Nar had beamed them all back to the ship the second he could reach the button.

Stumbling into the lobby, Dib could see that the ship had taken some damage as well. Seven had flown them further out from the planet, but not enough to deter the other ships. One of their turbines was down, and several people had been injured when the ship had been flipped into a barrel roll. And apparently, it wasn't over. Because there was still a ship shooting at them. 

A burn in his chest, Dib clawed his way up the wall and ran, staggering all the way, up to where Seven was desperately trying to fire back. Dib shoved him out of the cockpit with little fanfare. "Move."

"Wha--Agent Dib?" Seven yelped.

Dib didn't reply. Instead, he steadied the wheel, jammed his odd amalgamation of gun and speaker into the port of the console, then took aim at the ship. The resulting shot caused the entire barge to go dark and begin to lose direction, floating off towards the sun of this solar system. And maybe Dib should've been proud of that, proud of what he'd managed to do, but all he could think of was the deep, boiling desire to sent the ship into Blurb's sun himself.

He wanted to watch them _burn_.

When Nar arrived at the cockpit as well, Dib clenched his fists. 

"I told you that we shouldn't stay. I told you that it would leave us vulnerable. I _told_ you." He spun on heel then, eyes wild as his voice rose to a yell. "Why didn't you listen to me! Why the fuck did you make me an adviser if you weren't going to listen to what I had to say? Because now, oho, now--" Dib stepped forward slowly, listing on his fingers until he stood towering over Nar, who had shrunk back like a turtle. "We have injured, the ship is fucked up, and an entire planet just underwent a whole ass invasion because the Irkens thought they were harboring us! Because of _you_!"

"I-I--" Nar stammered, face pale as his hooves trembled against the floor with audible clicks.

"I'm leaving now. Because I've got a turbine to fix. Because you didn't fucking listen to me."

With that, Dib shoved past Nar and stormed out of the cockpit, head buzzing and teeth grit. He swept through the hallways without really knowing where he was going but knowing he had a goal in mind. But when he saw a familiar figure slinking along the shadows of an empty hallway, everything else fled his mind.

When Ixane was suddenly slammed into the wall, hiked up by her hood, she let out a startled gasp. She scowled when she saw who it was, opened her mouth to spit something scathing--

"State your allegiance," Dib growled, voice icy. "Before I jump to a conclusion that I don't like and then everybody on this ship will know you're Irken, because I'll have your corpse strewn across the lobby like a fucking bear skin rug."

"Is that a threat?" Ixane started, but she sounded less snarky than normal.

Dib pulled her off the wall and knocked her back into it so hard her skull bounced audibly off the metal. "Talk!" He snarled. "_Now_."

Scrabbling at Dib's hands, Ixane struggled and kicked out at him, but still shouted. "Y-Yours! Your side, I'm on your side! I may be Irken but I renounced my people! They betrayed me and the system is a lie!"

Slightly mollified, Dib relaxed his grip a little. "Irkens are programmed to be loyal to the Empire. Why should I believe you?"

"Your friend," Ixane gasped out. "The other Irken...there are outliers. Enough exposure to the truth can overwrite the loyalty."

Dib dropped her. She fell to the ground, coughing and rubbing her throat. He didn't wait for her to recover enough to start insulting him again. He spun on heel and stalked down the rest of the hallway to make his way to the turbines. It reminded him, though; he needed to call Zim.

Though, he considered as he traced along the bubbling rage in his stomach, perhaps he should wait until later. When he didn't feel such a strong urge to plant his fist through something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay look, I know I said one more chapter, buuut it's looking like two. Including this one. Seems I have a bit more build up to do before I can let myself get to where I want to be. These chapters may be kinda boring, but they're very important to the story, so bare with me!


	8. Caught Like A Fly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am...fairly unhappy with how this chapter turned out.

Dib was still working on the turbine when Nar found him again. He had the bubble on his goggles activated so he could breathe as he poked around in the outer layers of the turbine. He probably shouldn't have been sticking his head in there, but he was still too pissed to care. Dib had no idea how long he'd been at it, only that fixing it was a bitch and it seemed like forever. 

He had calmed down slightly, though. Enough to feel the tackiness of congealed blood on his neck and begin to seriously think about what Ixane had said. Dib had been too angry to continue interrogating her, but what she'd said, about evidence being able to override loyalty, he felt it warranted more questions. 

That is, if she was inclined to answer him after he shook her up like that.

"Agent Dib?" Nar ventured, drawing Dib's attention back to him. Dib clenched his jaw, slammed the outer hatch down, and reached up to deactivate his atmosphere bubble. Then he turned around to face Nar, expression dark and closed off. Nar flinched. "I, uh, I just came to ask--"

"_What_?" Dib barked. "What did you come to ask? Is there another strategical ploy you need advice for? Oh, wait! You don't listen to me anyway," He snapped, twirling the oddly shaped wrench in his hand and slamming it into the floor as he got to his feet.

"T-That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," Nar said hastily, edging in front of the exit so that Dib couldn't storm out. He cleared his throat and seemed to gather himself. "I realize that our course of action--_my_ course of action--was unwise. I should have taken your advice."

"Is that right." Dib deadpanned.

Nar cringed and tried again. "Er, yes. Yes..." He shook his head and drew in a shaky breath. "The numbers are in, and forty two of our people were injured, and the Blurbon tragedy is beyond the count of loss. Wes and one of their family members are currently taking refuge on the ship again. In the time between the start of the invasion and attack and its end, Spleenk and I were able to disarm exactly one Irken. Together. In those same two hours, you managed to not only disarm, but completely knock offline, over three hundred of them."

Dib's brow furrowed and his stance lost some of its stiffness. "Where are you going with this?"

Nar seemed to chew over what he wanted to say, before sighing. He looked up at Dib strangely. "Do you know why I started the Resisty, Dib?" He waited for Dib to shrug, bemused, before he elaborated. "Because I was tired of the Irken Empire pushing everyone around. I wanted them to pay for all the suffering and death they'd caused--to pay for taking over my planet and subjugating my people. But most of all, I just wanted to _win_. I wanted to fight for freedom and actually have a chance at gaining it. And it was apparently a widespread desire, because beings came from all over the galaxy to join the cause. They all wanted freedom. But now that I am here, leading all these people...I'm realizing that I can't give that to them. I'm not a leader. Back on Vort, I was an injury lawyer for other Dwarf Vortians like myself, and not even a very good one."

"Get to the point, Lard Nar," Dib said sharply, stomach churning uncertainly even as he processed all of that. But surely not...

Clearing his throat, Nar dipped his head once and folded his hands behind his back. "Right." He straightened his shoulders. "Agent Dib, for exemplary and honorable action in the face of danger and adversity, I am promoting you to the rank of Captain. Leader of the Resistance." He bowed his head in deference, then leaned back up to glimpse Dib's bewildered and incredulous face. When Dib opened his mouth, Nar held up a hand with a small, wry smile. "And don't worry, I've thought it through this time. So congratulations, Captain. Where do we go from here?"

This...was _such_ a bad idea.

Dib regarded Nar for a moment more, before letting out a breath. He steepled his hands over his nose. "I am still majorly pissed. And you realize the amount of responsibility you've dumped on me if I agree to this, right? You really want to give me that kind of power? Just a week ago, you were still worried I was a spy."

A dry smile curled Nar's lips. "Oh, by now I know you're not. And I _do_ realize the weight I'm putting on you. But I'm giving it to you because, to be honest, you may be the only one here strong enough to hold it."

There was a long minute of silence where they simply stared at each other, Dib's eyes gone narrow. The tension stretched, and snapped as Dib let out a groan, falling back against the wall as he buried his face in his hands. 

"Fine. Fine!" He caved. Running a hand up through his hair, Dib glared at Nar. "But from now on, we do things my way."

"That's what I was counting on," Nar assured him.

•⚡•

About an hour and a half away from planet Sevrawd, Dib sat in the Lab with Ixane sitting across from him, her hood peeled back for once. Her face was scarred up, one antenna broken off about half way up, and the other missing completely. She held a cup in her hands, a scowl on her lips. 

"They tortured me when they found out. It wasn't hard, seeing as an Irken's PAK is the most important part of their anatomy and me not having one--well, it obviously tipped them off."

"But why did they torture you? Why not just put your PAK back in?" Dib asked, brow furrowed. 

"They wanted to see what I knew, if anything. There was something they were hiding, something they thought I might've known that I wasn't supposed to. That no Irken was supposed to, if they way they were acting was any indication. I can't remember exactly what they asked me, because I was in too much pain--but I remember them asking about the Control Brains."

Dib blinked. "The-the Control Brains? Zim said they were just data banks."

Ixane shook her head an stared down into her cup, eyes glazed over in reminiscence. "They're sentient. They stand as ultimate judge at trials, and they can reprogram Irkens. I don't know what the mercs thought I had discovered, but whatever it was had to do with the Control Brains. And it was wiped from my drive when I had my PAK, but I remember now that anyone who questioned them got taken away from 'examination' and never came back."

"So they're hiding something big. Big enough that it could affect the whole of the Irken population," Dib mused, tapping his chin as he clicked a pen over an empty sheet of paper. He glanced up at Ixane. "And it made you abandon the Empire."

"I don't know what it is," Ixane mumbled grumpily. "But I know that I want no part of it. I had no choice but to turn my back on the Empire once they sent their hounds after me. And I refuse to ever wear a PAK again. I might not survive another Removal."

"According to literally everything Irkens have on them, you shouldn't have survived the first one."

"I don't know what happened, alright? One minute I'm dying, and the next I'm not. I have nothing else to say." Ixane turned her face away, lips pursed. Uncomfortable. Disturbed.

Dib opened his mouth to respond, only to be interrupted by the speakers overhead. 

_Arrival: planet Sevrawd. Landing party please proceed to the deck._

Feeling for the cylinder in his pocket, Dib stood. He nodded at Ixane. "We'll talk later. I have more questions...and something to confess."

What remained of Ixane's mutilated antenna perked up, and she tipped her head at him as he left. He walked quickly down the hall towards the main room, then waved at Spleenk, who stood on the platform. Dib jogged over and frowned slightly.

"Where's Nar?"

"He thought it best if he sat this one out. Not get in your way," Spleenk replied softly, an encouraging smile directed at Dib like the equivalent of fingerguns.

"Ah," Dib started, unsure of how he felt about that. It had only been a week, after all. After a moment, he decided to drop it. "Let's go then."

Spleenk nodded and pressed the button to beam them down. They landed on a grayed cluster of gravel, and blinked their eyes open to see that they were surrounded. A large _sword_ was brandished at Dib's face, and he held his hands up plactatingly. 

"Whoa, whoa! Hold up! We come in peace!" Dib yelled when the very sparkly natives made to advance on them.

Sedoegs. Golems.

A loud bark of something Dib's translator didn't pick up forced those around them to lower their weapons. A stout Sedoeg encrusted in amethyst and opal shouldered their way forward, a huge axe over their shoulder. She squared up in front of Dib, giving him a critical once over.

"You come from the sky," She grit out, voice rough and crumbly. 

"Yes," Dib answered carefully. "My name is Dib, and this is Spleenk. We've come to strike a deal."

The Sedoeg reluctantly put a fist over her stomach and stated, "Das. I would say well met, but I sense you bring ill news."

"There is a war coming--no, it's already here. A war between a race that wants to consume everything in the universe and the many beings trying to fight them. We're from the latter side, if you couldn't tell. If left unchecked, the Irken Empire will spread to the very corners of the universe, and your planet will stand no chance," Dib affirmed seriously. 

"And this deal of yours, I suppose you think a trade is in order?" Das replied sharply, coal eyes narrow.

"Of sorts." Dib stepped forward, and the axe was suddenly a hairsbreadth away from his throat. He didn't flinch. "The Resistance would like your support and force should we need it in the following fights. In exchange, if you ever need aid from Irkens or, after the Irken Empire is destroyed, a separate threat, we will help you."

"And why should I trust you? Why should I believe anything you have to say?" Das growled, baring her crystalline teeth in a snarl. 

Dib lifted his chin and met her gaze firmly even as the blade grazed his neck. "Because I knew one of your people. The only one of your people to ever make it off planet. And he was killed by Irken invaders when they came for planet MWA739. If you don't believe me," Dib murmured as he withdrew the Skrol from his coat. "Then believe this."

Several sharp intakes of breath could be heard in the golems surrounding them at the sight, and Das lowered her axe, eyes wide. She reached for the Skrol slowly and Dib gave it to her, watching carefully as she ran her fingers over it reverently, hesitated, and then unrolled it. She scanned the top, sucked in a breath, and then skipped to the bottom to read.

After a moment, she screwed her eyes shut and slowly, _slowly_ rolled the Skrol back up. Taking in a shuddering breath, her eyes snapped open and she looked to Dib. 

"What do you need us to do?"

•⚡•

It took a month and a half. A month and a half of no losses, of building water guns, of training Wes and their angry brother how to fight, of getting the drop on Irken freights and fleets and _winning_. A month and a half of Dib leading the Resistance--his Resistance--to victory. 

Before everything went to shit.

•⚡•

"You're calls have been sporadic lately, Dib-thing."

"Ah, sorry, Zim. Everything here is just so, you know, _amazing_ that I lose track of time. Am I bothering you by calling you so much?" Dib prodded in a valiant attempt to deflect what was really going on.

Zim pursed his lips. Dib noticed that the shadows beneath his eyes had darkened, his sharp hands shaky. Dib frowned. Zim sighed and refocused back down on GIR's mainframe. "No. Zim appreciates the increased calls. Things have been...confusing lately. Zim is not sure what to think."

Tipping his head, Dib furrowed his brows at the screen. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"I--" Zim cut himself off, jaw working fruitlessly for a moment as he chewed on what he wanted to say. "Do you remember what I told you, Dib? About how I was once in a r--"

Both of them were cut off by a loud bang coming from the other side of the ship. It shook the entire thing and sent Dib sprawling, his communicator spinning out of his hands and across the floor. He cried out when the ship spun and he slammed into the corner of the wall, his ribs immediately blooming with bruises, and curled into himself with a groan.

The crackle of his communicator echoed through the room. "Dib? Dib-thing? DIB!"

Another bang shook the ship as Dib pulled himself back up, nearly sending him back to the floor. He clutched his side and stumbled over to his communicator. He fumbled to pick it up. "I-I'm here, Zim. I have to go, I'll call you back, I promise." He rushed out, breathless.

Zim's eyes were wide, his stance widened like he was clutching at the screen in worry. "What was that? The Dib is bleeding. Earth boy, do not--DO NOT HANG UP ON ZIM, DIB, PLEASE--"

Dib hung up.

He didn't have time to feel bad about it. An explosion blew a hole through the door of the his room and four Irkens slipped through the dust and debris. Dib's mouth twisted into a snarl and he dodged the first barrage of shots by diving behind an over turned bed. He unhooked his flask from his belt with a wince, then uncapped it with his teeth. He waited a beat for the shots to slow, then rolled to the side again and flung the flask at the line of Irkens standing in the way of the door. Its contents splashed all over them, and they all went down screaming. Dib ran over and snatched one of their guns.

"Pure, polluted Earth water, bitches."

"_Captain!_" Nar's voice chimed abruptly in his ear. "_We're being attacked!_"

"Yeah, I can fucking tell, Lard," Dib snapped as he dashed through the hole in the wall and made his way towards the sounds of fighting. "They just blew up my room. But there weren't many over here; how are we doing on your front?" He lept over a fallen pipe and gravity went wonky for a few seconds. He blanched.

'_That's not good_.'

"_Not, uh, not good, Cap. We're... we're losing. They ambushed us--we weren't prepared to face this many Irkens at once--so many of our ranks are already dead._"

"What?" Dib's brow furrowed. Up ahead, he could see a tear in the outer hull that was sucking out debris like a jagged vaccuum. He clicked his bubble on and restarted his trek over to it. "How many ships are we looking at?" He demanded as he reached the tear. He steeled his feet and peeked outside. His stomach dropped.

"_...All of them._"

The Massive loomed like a sadistic, grinning demon just in front of the ship, flanked by thousands of smaller ships that dive bombed them like bees, a never ending stream of soldiers. 

An overwhelming force, finally come to put its might against a threat they'd deemed infinitesimal. And beneath the swell of the Massive, the Resistance looked like exactly that. 

An ant in comparison. Easily squished.

Dib clutched at his aching side and wheezed, eyes the size of dinner plates. "Fuck."

"_Seconded, sir._"

Dib shook off his shock, a grim determination swallowing the cold dread that had knotted in his stomach. He reached up to press on his ear piece, adjusting the settings so that he could be heard all throughout the ship. The speakers whined, but ultimately gave in.

A deep, steadying breath, and then Dib pulled out his best Captain voice and began to speak.

"We are surrounded. The enemy has us out numbered and out gunned. The Irken Armada has come to crush us like bugs beneath their boots." Dib chanced another glance out at the Massive as the noises of fighting quieted slightly. 

He could imagine his people pausing to listen, to feel hopeless, while the Irkens paused with them to bask in it. Dib thought of Ixane, of Wes, of Seven. 

He thought of Zim. 

His eyes hardened into glimmering shards of furious topaz. 

"So before we go out, let's break their fucking legs."

A roar of clashing metal and war cries erupted from down the hall, and Dib smirked grimly. 

Whatever the reason that the Tallest (just the one, if his sources were to be believed--the Red one had left the Massive on personal business) had decided to finally address the Resistance, they were going to regret it. The Resistance might not win, but they'd be sure to give the assholes a run for their money. A good chunk of their Armada was already in their domain, and the Massive just kept sending more. Whatever the outcome of the Resistance's final fight, it was sure to weaken the Empire. The thought made Dib smile.

He cocked the gun in his hands and raced towards the fighting once more. He emerged into the main common area and immediately started in on the Irkens that rushed him. A beam of light lanced through the head of one who had a killing blow for Schloonktapooxis, who whistled at him in thanks as they both went their separate ways, slashing and shooting as they went.

He'd only just made it into the thick of the fight when his gun was suddenly knocked out of his hands. A medium sized, familiar looking Irken leveled something sharp and black at his throat, even as he raised his switchblade to block it. 

The balance was laughable, with a big sword thing against Dib's tiny pocket knife, but he held it for as long as he could. The Irken sneered at him, "°_Stupid inferior pests._°"

"Funny," Dib huffed back in plain English, knowing he would understand. "I was thinking the same thing about you, _Skutch_, was it?"

The Irken's eyes went wide and he hissed. Whether his indignation was from the fact that Dib knew his name, or because Dib understood his insult, he didn't know. But the next thing Dib knew, he'd been over balanced as was tossed solidly onto his back. 

Then the sword came down--the hilt, not the blade, strange--and slammed into his face.

Everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUN NUN, HERE COMES THE DRAMA.
> 
> No I will not relinquish badass Dib, you can't make me.


	9. Purple Bruises, Black Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN OF THIS CHAPTER FOR _DECADES_ AND NOW HERE IT LIES!

Dib came to with a pounding headache and blurry vision. He let out a low groan and tried to sit up. He quickly discovered that his hands had been cuffed behind his back, attached to a chain in the floor. 

Well shit.

Curling in on himself to tip his weight sideways, Dib twisted until he could sit up correctly, mouth twisted in a grimace. Squinting, Dib could make out the stained, rusted metal of the walls around him, a ridge in the one to his right that slid open almost as soon as he turned to face it.

Blinding light seared into his eyes, and Dib flinched away from it with a growl, blinking spots out of his vision. He glared narrowly over at the silhouettes that emerged from the doorway, teeth bared.

"Seems you're not dying yet, filth," One said haughtily, an air of obvious disgust in their voice as they came forward and unhooked his chains from the floor.

"What a fucking shame," Dib rasped, before wrapping his hands around the chains near his wrist and yanking hard. The Irken came stumbling forward, shocked, and Dib planted his knee into their spooch. They went stumbling back with a groan of pain, and Dib turned and slammed the heel of his boot into their face for good measure, before sprinting for the door. A startled looking guard gawked at him when he burst out of the cell, then lunged at him. 

Dib whipped them across the face with one of the loose chains still cuffed around his wrists, knocking them clean out.

Huh. Hefty metal.

Dib swung the chains a bit to wrap them twice around his hands for a better grip. There was a shout from down the hall, so Dib turned and bolted the other way in search of more intricate hallways. There may have been no place to hide down here, but up a floor or two should put him on the same level as an engine room.

Spleenk had always gone on about how arrogant the Tallest were, but Dib thought they'd at least be a _little_ more careful letting a rebel leader onto their main ship. Apparently not.

Dib skidded around the corner, hit the wall, and kept running. Voices sounded from up ahead, but he didn't slow down. It wasn't like there was anywhere to hide, and he couldn't afford to let the Irkens behind him catch up, so he just barreled the rest of the way down the hall and lashed an arm out to whip a chain around the corner. 

A yelp, a grunt, and then Dib was rounding the corner and vaulting over two more downed Irken guards at top speed. There, at the end of the hall, was an elevator. Dib gave the panel next to it a glance--a print scanner, no buttons--then shook his head. He slammed into the elevator doors, prying at the seams of them to wrench them open. It took Dib a second too long to force open a large enough gap between them, what with the damn seal to break and the strength of the metal, but it gave, bit by bit, beneath his hands.

A storm of footsteps echoed off the walls, as well as some colorful Irken swears that had Dib smirking. He pushed himself roughly through the gap of the elevator doors, then looked hastily around for something he could use to lever himself up. 

The ridges jutting out of the opposite side would have to do.

Dib eyed the darkness below him warily, then made the jump for the ridges. Hooking his fingers behind the curves, Dib grit his teeth and put his weight in his shoulders as he swung himself forward and to the side until he could prop his boots on either side of the ridges. 

Balanced precariously, Dib started a sloppy spider walk up the elevator shaft, hastened by the growing volume of the shouts beyond the now crooked doors. He had almost made it to the doors of the floor above when the ones beneath him were jerked open all the way. Dib cursed and scrambled for the upper doors with fumbling fingers. 

Fortunately, they were opened abruptly just as he reached them, an enraged Irken with a blaster leveled at him just beyond it. Dib gave them a mocking, two fingered salute, before cracking them across the face with his metal wrapped fist. 

'_Chains make formidable weapons,_' Dib mused and he snatched their gun and fired at the knees of the next three Irkens who rushed him when he swung himself into the floor. '_I'll have to tell Nar when I get back. That is...If he's still alive._'

Dib didn't like that thought. He grimaced and shot the Irken who had thought to use their PAK legs in the face. Unfortunately, their fall managed to stab through the gun, slicing it in half. Whatever. It would only be a few moments until they were up and about again, of course, but it gave Dib a much needed delay to bolt up yet another floor.

But it wouldn't save him from an entire army of Irkens. Which was what awaited him beyond the door of the floor he had just thrown open. 

Dib had just sprinted headfirst into a training room. 

"Fuck," Dib snarled as several converged on him, even more joining as they realized what was happening. He clenched his fists around the chains and brought them up in repeated, rapid arches that smacked down the crowd of Irkens almost as soon as they could emerge. But as Dib was pushed to the center of the room--more like _coerced_, in a much more vulnerable position--the soldiers rose just as quickly as he knocked them out. "You're like fucking cockroaches," Dib spat, irate.

"Well." An idly curious voice drawled from above the crowd. 

Dib felt his neck prickle, and he whirled, hands raised threateningly, only to be hit in the chest by something small and dark. In a flash, it had unfolded to cover both his hands and feet, cuffing like a muzzle over his mouth. Dib was sent abruptly to his knees, eyes wide and expression twisted in bewildered rage. 

Though Dib was now incapacitated, no Irken moved forward to take him back to his cell. All eyes were trained on the stairs leading down into the training room, antennae down in deference. Confused, Dib turned his own gaze towards the stairs to see a vaguely familiar figure standing at the top of them. 

The Almighty Tallest Purple.

Dib's eyes darkened in a glower, snarling beneath the metal casing his jaw. 

Tallest Purple tipped his head at Dib, then jerked an arm towards one of the soldiers standing next to the stairs.

"Bring it here."

The soldiers at the bottom of the stairs scrambled to do as they were told, grabbing at Dib's locked up limbs to haul him toward and up the stairs, even as he shouted and lashed out. After he managed to slam one in the stomach with the casing on his ankles, the one holding his arms growled and slammed his head into the banister.

Pain burst through Dib's skull and he grunted with a cringe. A bit dazed, Dib was relatively still the rest of the way up the stairs.

He blinked the dark spots from his vision and shook his head to clear it as he was thrown forward, tossed haphazardly a few feet away from Tallest Purple. Dib huffed angrily through his nose and glared up at him, furious. 

If anything, the alien emperor just seemed amused. His eyes flickered. "A feisty, angry thing, aren't you? Made quite the impression." He glanced back up to survey the Irkens still picking themselves up off the floor. A sneer curled his lips. "I'm afraid to imagine what the damage would've been if he had gotten his hands on a gun."

The guards standing by Dib looked down and away in shame. Dib huffed and rolled his eyes. He choked on his next breath when a single, thin claw hooked under his chin to tip his head up and meet the Tallest's eyes. 

Tallest Purple hummed, and then suddenly the metal around Dib's mouth melted away. 

"Anything to say for yourself, human?"

"I'm gonna fucking kill you," Dib snarled without missing a beat, baring his teeth at the Irken.

Sharp, quiet little gasps sounded from the crowd behind him, but Dib couldn't find it in himself to give a shit. He looked at this alien, and all he could see was Wes, Seven, Ixane's blood on his hands. He saw Spleenk softly lamenting his home planet. He saw Zim, curled in a dark corner with his PAK held to his chest, minutes away from death. 

So yeah, Tallest Purple was probably going to have Dib killed now, because Dib didn't know when to hold his tongue. But Dib would be _damned_ if he wasn't taking a good chunk of the Irken Empire with him. 

But Tallest Purple just laughed. 

"Quite the mouth, too. Though the reports did say you had a fondness for one-liners." He leaned back with a hum. Without looking away from Dib's angry glare, Tallest Purple addressed the guards on either side of him. "Tag him and place him in my quarters. Make sure to leave him bound--wouldn't want another escape attempt, would we?" He cooed, the last part directed at Dib.

"Fuck you," Dib spat, chest heaving as adrenaline kept through his veins, high off his own daring. 

"Forward of you, but I'm afraid I'll have to pass," Tallest Purple drawled. He reached forward again, tapped Dib's chin, and the muzzle reappeared.

The guards next to Dib snickered, and his cheeks flushed indignantly. They hooked Dib beneath his arms and began to drag him away as he screamed and swore, struggling viciously even when they hit him again to try and shut him up. Smirking faintly, Tallest Purple turned away and swept towards the silver platform in the other direction. Once on it, the bottom lit up blue and began to rise much like an elevator.

Dib shouted and flailed as hard as he could, fighting them the whole way to wherever it was they were taking him. He didn't know what being tagged meant, but he doubted it was anything good. The guards cursed and dragged him down a short hall and into another room. It was relatively small, like a broom closet with a glowing square embedded into the floor in the back. One guard wrangled Dib forward onto it while the other stood in the doorway at attention. 

Almost the moment Dib set foot on the square, there was a strange feeling not unlike being transported from MWA 739's atmosphere onto the surface, and then both he and the guard were standing in a completely different section of the Massive.

Shuddering at the residual feeling of space between his atoms, Dib shook his head before restarting his struggles even if he had no idea what he was going to do if he succeeded in escaping his current guide. It was only when they rounded the corner of the hall they'd appeared in that the guard stopped and opened yet another door. He tossed Dib inside like a sack of potatoes and huffed. 

"Almighty Tallest Purple wants him tagged. Strip him of anything that could be used as a weapon, and might as well go ahead and put a deterrent on him too--he's wily. Someone will back to collect him when you're done with him," The guard said tonelessly, before exiting the room and letting the door slide shut behind him. 

Dib groaned behind the muzzle and levered himself slowly up on his bound hands, his hip and shoulder twinging as he did so. That was going to bruise. A sound of disgust from behind him made him whip his head around. 

A small Irken with narrow, silver eyes scowled down at him, hands on his hips. He was shorter than most Irkens Dib had seen, dressed in a white tunic that was overlayed with silver lace and trimmed in black. His antennae were drooped back, a little sphere on the end of them, like an ant. He was looking at Dib like he was a particularly disgusting wad of gum stuck to his shoe. "They are always just throwing trash in here like it belongs," The Irken sneered as he stalked over to Dib and hauled him up by the back of his trenchcoat so he could drag Dib over to a strange machine on the far wall. "Entitled toddlers, the lot of them. And how am I supposed to tag it if it's muzzled? Where would I even--oh _Irk_."

While the snobby little Irken cursed and fussed over Dib's face, Dib's panic began to mount even as his adrenaline fought to shove it back down. Oddly rounded glove tips pinched at Dib's ear and the Irken hummed absently.

"I suppose this will do. There's already a hole here, after all," He murmured as he lifted a thin nozzle off the wall and lifted it towards Dib's temple. Clicking his tongue in annoyance when Dib began to struggle, the Irken gripped Dib's hair and yanked his head back so he couldn't move. "Sit still, would you?" He snapped with a sniff of derision.

"Mmph!" Dib protested.

The nozzle was lifted and pressed against Dib's ear, and then a burning pain stabbed through his cartilage as a hefty weight attached itself to where he'd once had studs. Then the nozzle was pulled away, leaving Dib with a hot, pulsing pain near his temple. 

The Irken replaced the nozzle on its hooks then grabbed a small white cloth and dabbed at the afflicted area with it. "Cauterized. Good. It should heal up around it in a few days. If you live that long, that is."

Dib glared at him. Ignoring the angry human currently staring death at him, the Irken turned and strode back over to the door and pressed the button there with a frown. Then he turned back to Dib and gave him a once over. 

He probably looked like hell. His hair was stuck up all over the place (more than normal), and he had bruises beginning to bloom across his jaw from the earlier fight. His trenchcoat was slightly singed, but the mesh that the twins had repaired it with ensured that it wouldn't need to be mended again. Dib still had on the space suit beneath it, stiff black pants over his legs because he'd been a little uncomfortable with how tight the suit was around certain, er, _areas_. His boots were still on, miraculously.

Surprisingly, he noted that he ribs and head were fine. His injuries from the battle on the Resistance's ship had apparently disappeared. Dib frowned.

His guns were also missing, though he'd figured that was a given, but his lighter and everything else in his pockets had also been taken. They'd definitely been thorough the first time--they'd just underestimated Dib's ability to fuck shit up.

Speaking of which, the primly dressed Irken came forward yet again and pressed a button on the wall beside Dib's head. A large screen descending from the arched ceiling, tiny hands grabbing its edges and bringing it down in front of Dib before flicking it on. It lit up blue, and silver eyes narrowed further in confusion at whatever it was showing them. He glanced around the screen at Dib's cuffed hands, then back at the screen.

Shaking his head, the Irken shifted the screen away and stepped forward to hook a filled claw beneath the bridge of Dib's goggles and tug them off, both cutting off Dib's ability to read people and his ability to see. Setting the goggles aside on a small shelf next to the nozzle, he reached for something else, and then there was something wrapped tightly around Dib's neck. It felt like metal.

"There we go," The Irken murmured. He reached for the casing over Dib's hands and pressed something along the seam, which caused it to pixelate away. 

Immediately, Dib threw a punch that caught the Irken across the jaw, sending him stumbling back onto the floor. Dib heaved himself to his bound feet, lept towards the door, then fell to the ground as the Irken hissed out something he couldn't understand and the thing around his neck lit up like a fucking _livewire_.

While Dib was temporarily incapacitated, the little snob got to his feet and stormed over, ranting about something or other as he wrangled the chains off Dib's wrists and tossed them away. Dib wheezed into the muzzle, pained, as his trenchcoat was wrenched off and the cuff reactivated.

"--animal!" He heard the irritated Irken spit, obviously the end of some long-winded insult that, if Dib's ears hadn't been ringing, he probably would've been offended by. 

"Mmh!" Dib tried again, brows furrowed. He rolled his eyes and groaned. '_Shit._'

"Why Tallest Purple did not just have you killed on sight escapes me," The Irken huffed as he gripped the hem of Dib's pants and yanked. 

Alarmed, Dib tried to kick out, only for that word Dib didn't recognize to be barked out again, followed by yet another shock that made his teeth buzz and his mouth taste like iron. Swearing colorfully, Dib spasmed and his chest heaved, heart skipping a few beats to make up for the sudden onslaught. He was left panting, forehead pressed against the floor as his limbs started to ache like he'd just ran five miles.

The Irken tossed his pants aside as well and sniffed--or, something resembling it. "Better." Dib turned his head to glare back at him, and he raised an eyebrow. "I don't suppose you are going to give me the passcode to your armour? If you can call it that."

Dib gave him a deadpan look and a raised eyebrow.

He waved a flippant hand. "Thought not. Well then, my job here is done. You are the guard's problem now."

Grasping the neck of Dib's space suit, the Irken dragged him over to the door and slung him out of it. Dib slammed into the legs of yet another Irken, this one with the standard pink oculars. Grunting at the impact, the Irken glared down at the other one. 

"Watch yourself, Flit," They growled, bristling when the smaller scoffed and spun on heel, slamming the door behind him. Looking down at Dib, the guard sneered. "Well, well. Not so tough now, are you?"

Dib realized that it was the same guard that he'd kneed in the spooch earlier. He smirked. 

Seeming to sense Dib's smugness, the guard grit his teeth and began to haul Dib down the hallway. Dib huffed through his nose, extremely tired of being dragged everywhere. At least he wasn't being dragged around naked, thanks to his suit. It covered everything but his hands and his neck up, which, while occasionally uncomfortable given the tightness of it, ultimately gave him a faint (if misplaced) sense of security.

The guard stopped abruptly and spun, flinging Dib into yet another room, this one much more brightly lit than the other room. "Have fun, filth," The guard spat with a mean little grin. "The Tallest will give you your dues."

With that, he walked off and let the door hiss shut, locking Dib inside. Glaring daggers at it, Dib worked his way into a sitting position with a chuff. He shook his head slightly and took a moment to survey his surroundings as best he could. 

From what he could see, there was just...a lot of purple, which he supposed he should've expected. There was a large, circular window that looked out into space next to something large and soft looking--a bed? No, not a bed, it was too narrow. A couch? There seemed to be several couches. 

The wall he was up against was latticed silver and gold, with the larger diamonds sheened in the former and the frilled lines between glinting the latter. It was oddly opulent, given what Dib knew about Irken architecture. 

He shook his head again and leaned it back against the wall. Screwing his eyes shut, Dib allowed himself a moment to simply _absorb_. This would likely be one of his last relatively peaceful moments, so he wanted to make the most of it.

He thought of the Resistance, wondered if they had managed to win after he'd been captured. If not, how many had made it out alive? Would Nar take charge again in his steed? Regroup? Or were they all scattered to the wind? He thought of Wes and felt a pang of regret. The Blurbon just couldn't seem to get a break, from losing their wings, to losing their planet, and now possibly having lost what was left of their family if their brother (who could barely hold a fighting stance correctly, let alone aim a gun) hadn't made it. 

Dib let himself have a moment to be a pessimist. To feel hopelessness well up and fill his chest until he felt like he was drowning. 

Then he swallowed and shoved it back down, stuffing it into a box and kicking it into the back of his mind so he could focus on his present situation. Namely, the imminent threat of Tallest Purple and, as the small Irken--Flit--had said, why he hadn't killed Dib on sight.

Dib knew that whatever came next, it certainly wouldn't be good. This was going to suck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much interaction this chap, but hey! They met! Yay!(?)
> 
> They'll yell at each other some more next chapter, don't worry ;)


	10. Pretty Puppy

Dib was beginning to nod off when the door opened again. Instantly, his eyes flew open and he tried to straighten his posture only to fall over with a muffled yelp. The thing that Flit had pierced his ear with lit up a pleasing shade of periwinkle, and a soft voice chimed, "_**Rise for the entrance of Almighty Tallest Purple.**_"

'_I can barely sit up, much less "rise",_' Dib thought irately, brow furrowed even as he tried to sit up again. He pushed himself up on the cuff and was nearly sent right back down again. A mocking chuckle made him pause, and he looked over his shoulder towards the door, where Tallest Purple was standing, eyes amused and half-lidded. 

"Having trouble? Good." He swept into the room and sat himself on one of the couches, leaning heavily on the arm rest. His eyes glinted in the light of the room, and Dib found their lack of iris suddenly unnerving. A small tray rose up from the floor and presented Tallest Purple with a striped cup and a straw, which he took lazily, not taking his eyes off Dib. "You've caused me quite a lot of trouble, you know," He murmured, spinning the straw around with a claw. 

'_Good_,' Dib thought viciously, hackles raised. 

Tallest Purple smirked like he could hear it. "I doubt you're sorry, so I will save us both the trouble of that particular back and forth. But my my, running around bettering the Irken Empire's enemies, ruining invasions, blowing up freights--you have certainly been busy. Makes me wonder what to do with you."

Dib watched him take a sip of his drink with narrow eyes, wary. Where was he going with this? 

Tilting his head, Purple lifted his unoccupied hand and crooked a finger. "Come closer."

"_**Crawl closer,**_" The tag repeated cheerfully, like it was trying to coax a wild animal into following directions that it would otherwise be too stupid to understand. Or, in Dib's case, perhaps too stubborn.

Dib shook his head, pressing himself firmly back into the wall. Purple raised a brow. 

"_**You have 30 seconds to comply**_." The tag chirped. Dib remained where he was, apprehension held carefully away from his face as he counted down in his head, determined to remain uncooperative.

Thirty seconds passed, and then, as Dib suspected, the band of metal around his neck shocked to life, giving him a strong jolt, enough that his limbs locked up and his vision went screwy for a second, pain lighting each of his nerves up until he was biting back a shout, teeth drawing blood as they clamped down over his tongue. When it finally stopped, there were spots drifting across his vision and he slumped to the side slightly, heaving in air through his nose as his arms shook. Gritting his teeth, Dib shakily straightened himself back up into a sitting position against the wall, and continued to glare at the tyrant across from him as if nothing had happened.

Sighing, Purple placed his cup on the arm of the couch. "Honestly," He huffed, before reaching down and pressing something along the seam of the couch. 

Dib yelped as the floor beneath him suddenly kicked up and shifted, sending him sliding down the other side of the panel and into the leg of the couch. Head spinning, Dib flinched when a pair of claws brushed against the side of his face, between the muzzle and the tag. Pinching the tag between his fingers, Purple brought it up to the light, lips pursed. Dib caught sight of it in his peripheral vision; a small, teardrop gemstone that was shaded in lavender ombre. It glowed brightly in Tallest Purple's grasp, and faded when he released it again.

"Everything is in order." His gaze fell back to Dib, half-lidded. "So it's just you, then." Leaning back against the cushy seat, Purple regarded Dib with an odd look, like how one might look at something shiny they'd found on the beach. Dib leaned away, unnerved. "Humans rarely make it past their own solar system, and when they do, they are usually dead within a week or so. But you, you managed to not only survive, but enlighten an organization that, before you, stood no chance against the Irken Empire. You've become quite the annoyance, certainly. But what to do with you?" Purple mused, tapping at his chin in thought.

Dib thought back to Earth and the people he'd left behind, brow furrowed. He didn't know of any other human that had made it out of the Milky Way, let alone been at all interested in--

His chest froze over as he remembered.

_Dwicky_.

The fucking _pennies_ from MWA739. Holy shit, Dib had completely forgotten about that asshole! He was dead?

Well, honestly, Dib didn't feel too bad about that. Dib always was one to keep grudges. 

He was startled out of his thoughts by the muzzle melting away, and his gaze snapped back up to Tallest Purple, who was still watching him intently. "Your name, °_Almafil_°," He murmured expectantly, the word tacked on the end one that Dib didn't understand. He assumed, from the way the the Tallest was smirking, that it wasn't polite. "Unless you would rather I keep calling you 'human'?"

"Your reports didn't tell you my name?" Dib rasped, going for condescending and falling short due to the strain of his throat. "Wow. I knew Irkens were incompetent, but that's just _sad_," He retorted with a mean little grin. 

"Mouthy," Purple snarled, claws digging into Dib's jaw as he wrenched the human's face up. It appeared Dib had hit a nerve.

"Tyrant," Dib spat back, baring his teeth. 

"Ha!" Purple scoffed, an angry cinch in his brow even as his lips curled up, showing off a set of sparkling, sharp canines. He shook his head. "°_Alnaar aljamil tariq_°. I should have known you would be trouble." He sighed, sliding his other hand up into Dib's hair to grasp a handful and yank his head back. Dib wheezed out a pained gasp, and Purple hummed. "Now, tell me your name before I get impatient and decide to go ask one of your friends in the cells. _Much_ less nicely," He added lowly, as if he needed to specify.

Dib's chest tightened and his entire body tensed. "You...You don't have anybody else here. You would've used them as leverage earlier, when I ran the first time."

Purple smiled. "Would I?" His smile widened when Dib paled. "You didn't check, did you? You were on the far side, in solitary, and you were so focused on escaping yourself, well..." Purple shrugged, simpering. "Who knows who you might have missed?"

Dib clenched his jaw, trepidation creating a knot of dread in his stomach. 

He _hadn't_ looked. Hadn't even considered there might be anyone else down there with him, because Irkens didn't _do_ war prisoners. But if they had taken Dib, one of the Resistance's leaders, who they had every reason to want dead--who knew who else they'd taken?

Running his tongue nervously along his bottom lip, Dib looked reluctantly up at Tallest Purple once more. "My name is Dib."

The hand in his hair loosened, and Purple made a pleasant noise. "That wasn't so hard now, was it Dib," He cooed mockingly, propping his chin in his other hand. Dib grit his teeth. Purple tapped his chin after a moment, contemplative. "That actually sounds...familiar." His brow furrowed. "Irk, where have I heard that before?"

"Maybe in those infamous reports you mentioned?" Dib replied snidely, though his pulse had ratcheted up several notches.

_Zim_. 

No, he couldn't--Dib _couldn't_ think of Zim right now.

Sneering down at him, Purple raked his claws through Dib's hair, only to pause, blinking slowly as he pulled his hand back and repeated the motion. Then he trailed his hand down behind Dib's ear and over his cheek, making Dib flinch. Purple continued to just, stroke his face for a minute, bemused. Dib's hackles raised, uneasy, and he let out a thin breath when Purple stopped.

"For a being so prickly, you are very," Purple muttered after a moment, placing his hand over Dib's cowlick and pushing it down. "_Soft_."

There was a long, tense moment where Dib simply sat rigid as Purple scrutinized him, running his claw up to press it into Dib's bottom lip. He drew blood, then lifted the now crimson stained claw tip to his own mouth, antennae flicking curiously. For whatever reason, Dib's cheeks heated. 

Giving a thoughtful hum, Purple grinned down at Dib, eyes twinkling with something dark and malicious.

"I think I know _exactly_ what to do with you."

•⚡•

Zim was having a panic attack. He'd been frantically checking this and tracking that for the past three hours, but nothing was showing up. Even the chip he'd placed in Dib had gone...offline. 

Distressed, shrill clicks were echoing through his base, his cheeks wet and cool with tears. Not _sad_ tears, obviously. Angry tears!

Yes, Zim was very angry at Dib for leaving him hanging like that, _yet again_. That was twice now, and the human was obviously just being a Gashlork about calling Zim back to let him know that the Dib was okay and hadn't died a painful, fiery death from an implosion in space. 

The clicks increased in volume.

There was a faint sound in the back of Zim's mind, like a door opening, but he couldn't care right then. He just--he _needed_ to know that Dib was okay. He needed to know that his only friend hadn't abandoned him.

"Zim?"

"He's there somewhere. He's got to be," Zim murmured feverishly as he ran the tracker scan for the fortieth time. "He's alive."

"Zim, what are you doing?"

"COMPUTER! Run diagnostics!" Zim barked, brow burrowing in irritation as the screen flashed red again for the fortieth time.

_Vitals not found._

"**I've already run them! You've made me run them eighteen times already! Sir--**" 

"Then run them AGAIN!" Zim screamed, incensed. He smacked both hands into the table, sending it rocking dangerously back and throwing the multiple half-finished inventions off it and into the wall. "RUN THEM UNTIL DIB IS FOUND!" Clutching at his head, Zim grit his teeth. "I can't...I _can't_\--" His voice choked off as the clicking overtook his vocal chords.

A hand clapped down on his shoulder and spun him around. Ruby red eyes met his sternly. "Zim, _what's happening_?"

At the sight of Red, Zim's breath caught in his throat and his antennae flattened even as his burned with tears anew. Red pulled Zim's hands away from where they were clawing into his skull, and Zim let out an anxious noise. Red leaned forward to curl his antennae around Zim's, but blinked when Zim pushed him away. Concerned, Red watched as Zim staggered away towards the screen once more.

"Computer," Zim began, raspy, only to clench his jaw when Red caught his arm again.

"Why do you grieve?" Red said softly.

"I--" Zim cut himself off, throat closing up. He squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head, trembling. He couldn't explain. He couldn't put the implication of Dib's disappearance into words, because then he would have to admit that Dib was...

_Vitals not found_.

Red sighed, pulled Zim into his arms, and pet his pinned back antennae lightly. "Computer, explain."

Zim would've protested, but his Computer was specifically programmed not to obey anyone but Zim. Unless Zim said otherwise, there was no way it would--

"**Master's human confidante left Earth for space four months ago, and has now gone completely offline. The device Master placed within him has ceased to show signs of life.**"

"A human?" Red said incredulously, brow cocked in question as he looked down at Zim, who had gone rigid. "You had a human confidante? This Dib-human? _That_ is why you're upset?"

Zim abruptly squirmed out of Red's hold, chest igniting with indignance. Slapping away Red's hands when they reached for him again, Zim hissed. "Do not patronize me! Not in this! Zim is perfectly justified to be upset about the loss of the only being in the known universe that treated me like an equal! Unlike _you_!"

"You are angry," Red began carefully, eyes wide and a bit bewildered. "I understand--"

"No, you DON'T," Zim shrieked, latching onto the fury because it was so much easier to feel that the sorrow. "You are the Tallest. You have _no_ idea what it's like to lose someone close to you!"

"I lost you," Red murmured after a moment, antennae drooped back. Zim's eyes widened. Red stepped closer, seeing an opening. "I lost you. Did you think it was easy to hide you away? To send you off somewhere I could never see or touch you again? That I _wanted_ to?" Shaking his head, Red reached down and cupped Zim's cheek to smooth the dampness there away. 

"You were quite the actor," Zim accused quietly.

Red chuckled wryly. "I had to be. I cared for you deeply, _aeshajnun_. Why would I ever want to send you away?"

Swallowing around the sudden lump in his throat, Zim averted his eyes and pursed his lips. He nuzzled into Red's palm with a shaky sigh. Purring, Red pulled him closer, satisfied.

"This human is nothing. You will survive it's loss."

"He's not nothing," Zim responded vehemently from where his face was smushed into Red's chest, but he burrowed into him anyway. The comfort was warm and pleasant; everything he didn't feel at the moment. He needed this. "Not to me. He...he was Zim's _Lazahrik_."

"What is _Lazahrik_ next to your Tallest, Zim?" Red crooned gently, petting at Zim's antennae once more. He smiled when Zim shivered. "I will keep you from falling. Grief will not take you, not while you have me. But, _aeshajnun_, I cannot help you if you don't let me." He leaned down and brushed his lips across Zim's forehead, directing his small hand back to the keyboard. "You need to let him go," Red whispered.

Zim's eyes filled yet again, blurring his vision. He turned and buried his face in Red's neck, hands shaking. Flashes of the past few years began to flicker before Zim's eyes. Dib, offering him a hand up after a particularly brutal battle. Dib, laughing as Zim ranted on about something innane. Dib, throwing a Christmas present at his head and giving him a faint, sad smile. 

Dib, screaming in his face as he forcefully shoved Zim's PAK back into his ports. 

_"I swear to God, you do **not** get to die on me, Space Boy! Not after everything we've been through."_

Zim let out a sob, clutching desperately at Red's skirts. "I-I..."

Then Red had pushed his finger atop Zim's own, and together, they pressed the delete button. The screen swirled to black. Zim's breath was punched out of him, chest feeling hollow and shattered as he stared, frozen, at the now blank screen. 

Just like that? 

Everything was gone. Gone, forever. He wouldn't be able to search for Dib again. 

Perhaps it was for the best. This way, at least, Zim could pretend. Could pretend that, were it running, he would've been able to find Dib, alive and healthy, off doing whatever it was that idiotic humans did whenever they ventured into space. He could pretend that Dib was on the adventure of his life, just too far away for Zim to reach. 

Anything had to be better than the alternative.

•⚡•

A quintillion light years away, unknown to Zim, Dib was very much alive. Currently, he was unsure if that was such a good thing.

"Oh _hell_ no."

This was _humiliating_.


	11. Lifetime Achievement Award

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am currently rereading some of this and dying over the typos, so if anybody wants to Beta plz let me knoooow (I no longer want to die like a man they die so messily it's gross)

Purple had spoken into some kind of intercom that extended from his PAK, half of which Dib didn't understand as he still wasn't that fluent in spoken Irken. Something about measurements and angles of light, as well as...types of metal? A torture device of some kind, then? 

Dib rolled his eyes at the thought. Typical. Cliche. Unoriginal.

(Also inexplicably terrifying.)

Purple retracted the intercom and returned his gaze to Dib. "What is the passcode for your suit?"

Glowering, Dib uttered a scathing, "Bite me."

Then, before Dib could blink, his face was wrenched up again, spine arching painfully to accommodate. Purple's eyes were narrowed, lips curled into a sneer. "I do not have the patience to repeatedly threaten those you care for. I have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later, like every Irken. So I suggest you learn to hold your tongue, °_Almafil_°."

He didn't shout or growl, but he didn't have to. However soft his voice was, his words were laced with promise. 

Dib swallowed and grit his teeth. "You'd seriously kill your leverage for something as stupid as my passcode?"

"If I want at your skin," Purple murmured as he dug his claws harshly into the underside of Dib's jaw. "Then I will get at it. I don't care how."

There was a long moment where they simply glared at one another, until Dib finally leaned his face away from Purple's sharp hands and growled.

"..._Delta echo alpha delta_." He grumbled at last. The crystals on his suit flashed, and the metal that had curled artfully over his chest receded into a zipper at the back. Dib shuddered at the sudden feeling of being exposed, the inner workings of the suit shutting off to reveal that the room was much colder than he'd originally thought.

"That's an odd one," Purple mused, antennae flicking forward in interest as his head tipped curiously. "Most others use number sequences."

"Number sequences are easier to hack," Dib responded reluctantly. "And it's easier to remember something with more significance. Numbers are impersonal."

Purple gave him an odd look, assessing, like Dib had just told him some dark secret. After a moment, he smiled. "You are very strange. Your species must be incredibly primitive."

'_Fuck you too,_' Dib thought venomously. But he didn't voice it, because unlike what most people thought, Dib could learn.

The far door opened, and in stepped the Irken from earlier. Flit. He stepped elegantly into the room, bowed deeply at the waist, and laid his droopy antennae back in deference. "My Tallest, you sent for me?"

"Raise your gaze, Seamster Flit," Purple said, tone smooth and firm, yet not nearly as condescending as the one he'd used with Dib. 

"Thank you, my Tallest." Flit straightened, and blinked. It occured to Dib then as Flit looked back and forth between Purple and Dib with a carefully blank face, that this would look rather odd to anyone who didn't hear the conversation beforehand, or know exactly who Dib was. Dib was kneeling, bound and trussed up in front of Tallest Purple's lounging form, looking for all the world like a guilty servant.

(What were those things called? The ones Zim had always ranted and raved about being of lower rank despite being taller than him. Table-headed service drones? Ugh. What a job.)

"I have persuaded our little rebel leader to unlock his suit, so you should have no issues fitting him for what I requested, yes?" Purple cooed, saccharine. 

Flit looked briefly surprised, but quickly composed himself. He bowed again. "Of course, my Tallest. How quickly will you need it finished?"

"As quickly as possible." Purple gestured vaguely at Dib. "Take him and have him fitted. Document any irregularities as well, and send them back to me. When he's done, call for one of my guards. They will know what to do with him from there."

With that, he waved a hand in an impatient shooing motion, and Flit hurried forward to grasp Dib by the back of the suit and drag him out of the room yet again. Purple wiggled his fingers at Dib in a mocking goodbye, and then the door shut and he was out of sight. It was just Dib and Flit, the apparent seamster.

"I was going to say that your continued existence finally made sense," Flit began loftily, marching swiftly through the halls and trailing Dib behind him with relative ease. "But then Tallest Purple referred to you as a rebel. So I suppose we are back to square one with you and your purpose here."

"You and me both, buddy," Dib grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Flit cocked a brow at him, pursing his lips. "With the added mystery of why he removed your muzzle. You are a mouthy little pest."

"Bigger than you," Dib shot back, because he couldn't resist.

Flit scoffed. "Like that's some sort of _accomplishment_." He sneered as he stopped in front of the door from before and pressed his hand to the scanner. It slid open, and Flit dragged Dib inside. "Now, I'm going to have to take off your restraints for this, and if you try to run again, well, I think you know what happens."

Dib resisted the urge to spit something back, suddenly hyper-aware of the band of metal around his throat. 

Flit dropped him in the middle of the floor, which rose up slightly beneath him, shifting like the floor in Tallest Purple's room had. Dib took a moment to wonder at it, questions rushing through his mind, rapid fire. Then they were snuffed out by the fact that Flit was back and yanking him into a sitting position. 

The cuffs around his ankles slatted back and away from each other, and the cuffs around Dib's hands seemed to get thicker in response. Some sort of nanobot technology that relied on transformation, perhaps? 

Flit urged Dib to his feet once they were free of the cuff, and stepped back with narrow eyes, as if waiting for Dib to bolt for the door. Dib rolled his eyes yet again.

"I can sit still while you measure me for whatever horrible torture device your tyrannical leader wants you to whip up, alright? I'm not an idiot, I can tell when the odds aren't on my side." That just normally didn't mean he'd heed them.

"Torture device?" Flit inquired incredulously, a pale, translucent ribbon extending from his PAK. Then he blinked, and scoffed, shaking his head as he stepped closer again as a pair of rectangular, blue lensed spectacles pixelated into being just below his eyes. "Of course. You would think that, wouldn't you? It would make _sense_, at least," Flit muttered as the tape wrapped tightly around Dib's ankle. He hummed, then measured the other ankle.

"Wait, so you're not building some sort of horrible Irken rack to try and get me to spill Resistance secrets?" Dib blurted, bewildered and ever so slightly relieved.

Flit glanced up at him, smirking. "One, I do not think gaining your secrets would be very hard, as Tallest Purple was able to get your passcode from you relatively easily." Dib's face heated, indignant. Flit continued, tape now wrapped around the swell of Dib's calf muscle. "And two, I am a _seamster_, not an engineer. I work with cloth, not metal. Well, mostly."

Well. That wasn't worrying at all.

Dib's mind began to race as Flit finished measuring his legs and moved to unclasp his hands. Flit hesitated a moment, but ultimately clenched his jaw and pressed the release anyway. The cuff folded into a small, black square about the size of a napkin, and Flit set it to the side. Dib flexed his hands, and Flit paused. But Dib had decided that he was currently all out of moves. He needed something, a leg up, before he could even beginning planning another escape attempt. When Dib let his hands fall limply to his sides, Flit came forward again.

He measured Dib's wrists, his forearms, the width of his biceps, the circumference of his throat (above the shock collar, of course), and, oddly enough, the crown of his head. Then he stepped back again, clicked something on his specs, and the floor flattened back out again.

"I will have to remove your armour now--_please_ spare me the whining about modesty," Flit snapped sharply when Dib opened his mouth to protest. "I have had many, many people in this room in my time, and a lack of clothing is not going to kill you. It is coming off sooner or later, this just happens to be the sooner, less painful option. I am going to remove your suit now. So do not _hit me_."

Swallowing hard, Dib clenched his jaw and stood still, hands fisted tightly at his side. Flit huffed and came forward again, rocking up onto his tiptoes to reach the zipper. Then he yanked it down with little finesse, the chill of the room biting into the newly exposed skin of Dib's back and sending goosebumps racing up his spine. Dib shivered and grit his teeth so hard they ached, forcing himself to remain still as Flit tugged the suit off of him and left him standing bare in the middle of the room. 

Flit tossed the suit away, clicked his specs again, and the floor beneath Dib rose up once more, slightly lower than the last time. Instinctively, Dib cupped his hands over his junk as Flit rounded the platform, cheeks hot. But other than the tension in his shoulders and the blush dusting his face, Dib was the perfect picture of casual. Well, as casual as one could be in this situation. Which, unfortunately, was not very. 

"Hands off," Flit ordered as he pulled the tape back out of his PAK, along with a length of white fabric. "I need to measure your waist and your chest. Arms up."

"What do you need all these measurements for?" Dib asked as he slowly complied, raising his arms. 

"Do you not understand the word 'seam--" Flit cut himself off once he looked up from where he was examining the length of fabric. His reflective eyes went wide and zeroed in on the exact place Dib hoped they wouldn't. Flit blinked, a dusting of lilac across his cheeks. "Ah."

"I thought you said you were a professional," Dib said dryly to disguise his discomfort, mortified. 

"I--it just--_why_?" Flit responded, sounding vaguely horrified. "The opposite sex must be incredibly resilient."

"Can you stop staring at my dick?" Dib snapped abruptly, blush spreading down to his chest even as a pang of pride shot through his chest. Definitely not the time.

Shaking himself, Flit shut his eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply, seemingly gathering himself. When he opened his eyes again, he fixed his gaze sternly on Dib's chest, flush significantly reduced. Then he continued to measure the width and angles of Dib's hips and thighs with the most methodical of moments, apparently back to his earlier 'professional' self. He moved onto Dib's chest, and Dib relaxed. 

Dib was also beginning to understand why his suit had to be taken off for this part, as it was less about width and length and more about the angles of his bones. It was a little disconcerting, but Dib was too wary of another awkward staring contest to try asking about the purpose of the measurements again. 

Once Flit was done, he stepped back and left Dib up on the platform, still buck naked, and trotted over to the far wall, where several lines of panels sliced up the tile into squares. Flit pressed a few other buttons on his specs, then pressed his hand to one of the panels. It lit up and turned blue, much like the screen of his specs, and he tapped a few icons before moving onto the next panel. By the time he was done, five panels had lit up and were whirring softly.

Then, while those were doing...whatever it was they were doing, Flit snapped his fingers and that screen from before came down from the ceiling once more, lighting up green this time. However, when Flit went to touch it, it blared red. Dib startled at the sound, but Flit just scowled. An intercom extended from his PAK and he yanked it down to his mouth. "Rae, I need access to the medical scanner. What do you mean _why_? Tallest Purple told me to do so. Just grant me access, you cretin!"

After a moment, the screen pinged and turned a slightly brighter shade of green. Flit huffed, then gave the intercom an affronted look. "Why you--°_filthy Shaxrayunzar_°!"

With that, Flit retracted the intercom in such a rush that it was reminiscent of slamming a telephone back into a wall holder. Even though Dib hadn't understood the last half of that insult, he could tell that it was far from casual. Flit stomped over to Dib, pulling the screen with him until it lined up with Dib again. He swiped across a few things, tapped a few buttons, and the screen filled with Irken symbols. It looked like some sort of report. Before Dib could read more than '_a significant spike in--_', Flit had minimized the report and swiped it into another icon, where it disappeared entirely. The screen was drawn back up into the ceiling, and Flit returned to the panels in silence.

After an uncertain (but far too long for Dib's comfort) amount of time, the panels dimmed back to black and flipped to reveal their contents. At first, Dib wasn't sure what he was looking at. And then Flit flicked a switch and the pieces aligned themselves into something unmistakable. 

Dib's eyes widened and he fell off the platform. "What the _hell_," He barked as he righted himself and propped his elbows up on the platform to point accusingly at Flit. "Is that about? You are _not_ putting that on me."

"Tallest Purple said to put you in it, so you will be wearing them one way or another. I suggest that you continue to express a modicum of self-preservation and comply."

"My life is definitely not worth _that_. Besides, he hasn't killed me yet. And why would he even--?"

Flit cut Dib off with a sharp glare, teeth bared in a sneer. "Do not question my Tallest's decisions. It will get you nowhere and gain you nothing but pain. An inferior, moronic pest like yourself could never hope to understand our ways and desires. So come over here so I can make you presentable or I will _make you_."

While Flit was much less intimidating than Purple, Dib was still very aware that in the little bit of time that his leash had swapped hands, his situation hadn't changed. He was still aboard the largest ship in the Irken Empire with possible hostages below him, he still had no idea who of the Resistance was dead or alive, and he still had no way to escape. As much as Dib hated it, the smartest (and only) thing to do in his current position was to let the Irkens order him around. 

For now.

So Dib stood and rounded the platform in stiff steps, making his way towards Flit and ignoring the way the seamster's eyes briefly flicked down once again. Once beside Flit, he knelt beside him, putting them almost at equal height. When Flit blinked, startled, Dib merely smiled innocently.

"So you can reach."

•⚡•

This was _humiliating_. 

Dib had done a lot of humiliating things in his life, several of which were a result of his old feud with Zim, but this was definitely breaking through his top ten most embarrassing moments. 

Normally being marched through enemy territory in chains would be mortifying in its own right, considering that it would signify that he was stupid enough to let himself get captured. (Some leader he was). But at least that would've been manageable, he still would've been able to hold his head up high, proud in his defiance against the largest military force in the universe. 

However.

There was a difference between being marched through enemy territory in chains and being marched through enemy territory in chains while dressed like a _hooker_. 

Flit had been incredibly meticulous while dressing Dib, and for good reason. There were thin black chain links studded with violet gemstones crisscrossed down his arms that connected at the back of his brand new collar, which was made of a bright silver, slatted metal, a large purple crystal embedded in its center. The collar branched down over his chest into crescents of intricate silver that had several slim triangles dangling from them, shortening in length to follow the angle of his torso. It ended in yet another purple jewel, beneath which hung a larger triangle embedded with the Irken insignia. 

A net of smaller silver chains, like mesh, hung off his hips, shielding the worst of his nudity with glimmering tassels and a plane of crystals that started off pale heather at the top but gained more pigment the further down they went. A braided twist of black metal encircled the crown of his head and settled a triangular gemstone in the center of his forehead, just beneath his cowlick.

There were silver bands on his wrists and ankles, but unlike the other pieces, they were clear of crystals. Because unlike the other pieces, they had an actual purpose. To keep him from running.

Not that the rest of the getup didn't have a purpose as well. With the obvious vulnerability, the Irken insignia, the mass amount of _purple_\--it was a message.

A _brand_.

This whole thing, the tag, the outfit, the big show of walking him through the auditorium to get to the front room; it was a ploy to put Dib off his cool, to unnerve him and shake him up so he'd make mistakes. So Purple would have a clear way for whatever he was planning.

And as much as Dib loathed it, he couldn't let it get to him. He _knew_ what Tallest Purple was aiming for, and he couldn't let it work. So Dib held his head up high as he walked with his wrists bound together in front of him, dressed like a fancy prostitute, flanked by two guards on either side. He ignored the pointing and whispering and snickering of the clusters of Irkens they passed, channelling Zim as best he could. 

'_I am the most impressive person here. Nothing can touch me, and I am always one step ahead even when I'm not. They'll never see me coming._'

The guards beside him pushed the doors to the front room open with a heap of dramatic flair, and they took three steps into the room before stopping and bowing so low their antennae touched the ground. Dib put on his best resting bitch face and waited for the inevitable.

The room was comprised of a raised metal walkway, with a row of long control panels on either side, several Irkens with high collars manning the different sections of them. At the far side of the room, where the walkway widened out into a large, circular platform, the wall opened up in a long, curved window that displayed the black, starry space beyond.

"My Tallest, we have brought the rebel, as you requested," One of the guards reported, still bent at the waist. 

"Raise your gaze," The familiar alto of Tallest Purple called back, a gauntleted hand waving flippantly as the wide seat that sat dead center of the platform spun around to reveal the Tallest splayed over it like a bored, unruly teenager. His head was tipped back on the arm of the lounge, which was upholstered in a split of crimson and lavender, and one leg was drooped off the edge of it, trailing the floor. Then, as Purple caught sight of Dib, his eyes widened. He sat up abruptly, getting to his feet. However, he made no move to come closer, instead clasping his hands like a preacher and uttering a simple but sharp, "Bring it forward."

Straightening once more, the guards hooked Dib by the arms and pulled him forward, nearly making him trip over his own feet. Dib huffed through his nose and glowered at Tallest Purple once they had stopped again, a few feet before him. Now that Dib was closer, he realized that while Purple had seemed impossibly tall before, he was less than a foot taller than Dib himself. A fact that Purple seemed to realize himself then as well. 

"Leave," Purple snapped at the guards without taking his eyes off Dib, who was holding back a smirk by the skin of his teeth. 

"Y-Yes, my Tallest," They chorused hastily, bowing again before hurriedly fleeing the scene. 

The door shut heavily behind them, and before Dib could process what was happening, Purple had grabbed his bound wrists and yanked Dib to his knees in front of the lounge. Grinning down at him, Purple seated himself primly back onto the lounge and crossed his ankles, a hand threading itself through Dib's hair. "There. Right where you belong."

Dib scowled. "If you think this is going to wear me down, it won't. You're wasting your time. You might as well kill me now."

"Oh, °_Almafil_°, you would not be nearly as much fun dead," Purple crooned, chuckling. He scraped his claws along Dib's scalp, sending tingles down his spine. Dib shivered, screwing his eyes shut to steel himself against the maddening sensation. Purple smirked.

"I have plans for you yet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a rendition of Dib's new getup [here](https://grimalkinmessor.tumblr.com/post/188890690902/defiance-click-for-better-quality-jfc-yeah-i), however thanks to the lovely silly-illie on tumblr, there is a [better one](https://silly-illie.tumblr.com/post/190370513909/so-i-read-grimalkinmessor-s-fic-indigo-give-it). Give a little wuff for nudity!


	12. It Was The Craziest Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, I honestly went into this thinking the RaZR was gonna be fluffy and it's just..._not_. Whoops 😅
> 
> Finally earning that Yule Log tag!

"Open a transmission with Tallest Red," Purple drawled, lazily carding his fingers through Dib's hair as he spoke. 

"He has currently blocked all incoming transmissions, my Tallest Purple," One of the high collared Irkens explained timidly. "It's sending all of them to his inbox instead."

Purple sighed in annoyance and stopped petting Dib (because that's what it was. He was _petting_ him. Like some sort of dog.) to twirl his hand in the air. Like in his room, the floor opened and up came a circular tray with a single glass on it, something dark and vicious within. Offset from the unsettling nature of the glass's contents, was a bright pink curly straw. Purple snatched the glass and brought it to his lips with a huff. "Set up to record a message, then. I refuse to wait on him."

The smaller Irken dipped their head. "Of course, my Tallest."

They tapped a few things on the panel, and then the window in front of them lit up into a screen, a square of black displaying the camera feed. It flickered, and then they were being recorded.

Purple hummed. "You'll be pleased to know that I have taken care of our problem, Red," He began, clenching his hand in Dib's hair. His antennae twitched in a gesture Dib recognized as annoyance. "By myself, of course, given that you are _still_ off chasing tail. You are simply lucky the Massive was built to be run by a single Tallest, and that I haven't become complacent. Not that I will not welcome you back, of course, °_Shaqiqeahdi_°; I just wish you would take my suggestions into account so you could return more quickly. However, if you take much longer, I have no doubt I will have our rebel problem completely resolved."

Here he paused to yank Dib's head back, baring his throat to the camera. Dib grit his teeth and swallowed down a pained grunt, Adam's apple bobbing beneath the glinting metal of the collar. 

"**Remain silent,**" the tag chimed quietly, glowing for a moment.

"Light speed, Red," Purple said lowly, his tone hovering somewhere between threatening and wistful.

He waved a hand and the transmission cut off, the screen going transparent once more. Sipping at his drink, Purple huffed and let his hand slip from Dib's hair. Dib shook his head, grimacing as he tried to disperse the sting still lingering in his scalp. 

Tallest Purple then flicked his fingers and a black square a lot like the one that had unfolded into Dib's earlier restraints shot up to hover in front of his claws. Dib tensed. But Purple simply pressed a claw to the center of the square and it widened into something that looked vaguely like an iPad, but with no back. The screen was holographic and a translucent turquoise, filled with Irken symbols. 

'°_Anatomy Report:_

_Human--extra appendages..._°'

Dib didn't get to read more, because Purple had pressed the side of the screen and the back of it lit up white, obscuring it from Dib's vision. Dib huffed. "So what, your co-ruler just decided to up and leave right as a rebellion started kicking up? I mean, I had intel that there was only one of you on the Massive, but I didn't know why. It seemed like a stupid move." 

The collar around Dib's neck zapped him, making him yelp and jolt, barely able to catch himself on shaking hands before he hit the floor again. Dib cursed under his breath, frustrated.

Purple huffed, amused and irritated. "Red left the Massive on a personal endeavor several months before you started stirring things up, human. Not that you were much of a threat in the first place."

"I was enough of one to get your attention. To make you come in person."

"Is that what you wanted?" Purple replied silkily, looking over the screen at Dib with half-lidded eyes. "My attention?"

"I wanted you dead," Dib spat back, though his cheeks had flushed. 

"Why?"

"Because you're evil!" Dib said, scowling. 

Purple laughed, short and condescending. "That's all? How childish. Crusading against an entire species just because they go against your morales."

Dib was struck silent for a moment, taken aback. A pang of guilt struck through his chest before he could stop it. Had he...? Dib shook his head viciously to rid himself of the notion. "No, that's _not_ all. You--"

"You could continue to come up with flimsy excuses, but we both know none of them would matter to me." Purple scrolled the screen down. "Not now that I have you neutralized."

"Then why the fuck did you ask?" Dib snapped, irate.

"I asked why you wanted me dead, not why you were fighting the Empire. You circumvented the answer, and even that was unsatisfactory," Purple drawled. His eyes widened briefly on the screen, and his lips curled. Then he scrolled down again, gaze hungry with curiosity. 

"Because you _lead_ the Empire I'm fighting. I would think that the monarch of a warmongering species would know that one of the first steps to winning a war is to discredit or get rid of their leader."

"Mm," Purple looked up and gave him a pointed once over. Dib bristled. Purple grinned, eyes narrow. "So your fight was not with me specifically? Then why aim to kill me?"

'_Because I hate you. I hate you because I know you're the reason my best friend tried to kill himself. I know you're reason I saw a beautiful place reduced to ashes. I know you're the reason I've seen what enslavement does to people. I know that you're the reason I've seen children die._'

Dib didn't say any of that. It was too close, too personal, and he recognized the glint in Tallest Purple's eyes as one fishing for something to weaponize. And Dib refused to give it to him.

So instead, Dib bared his teeth and snarled, "Because you are responsible for everything the Empire has done, and you _disgust_ me."

The mirthful expression on Tallest Purple's face melted off beneath the heat of his anger, antennae trembling with fury as his gaze sharpened. "Mind." He dropped the screen to grasp Dib's chin and hook his claws in between Dib's throat and the collar. "Your." Dib was yanked upwards painfully, the hand on his face hooking sharp fingertips behind his teeth when he cried out. "_Tongue_," Purple hissed at last, seething. "Before I dispose of it."

A trill of fear shot down Dib's spine, his pupils shrinking as his pulse quickened, mindful of the claws now digging into his tongue. Purple's antennae were still shaking even as his expression smoothed back out, giving away his anger. His claws scraped roughly across Dib's tongue, making him wince, but with that, the anger suddenly disappated.

Purple's antennae stilled and his brow smoothed slightly, the hard press of his claws gentling so he could slide them across Dib's mouth, stroking the inside of his cheeks, the roof of his mouth, and swiping briefly around the underside of his tongue, the second of which made Dib want to sneeze and the latter making his whole mouth tingle. Purple made a soft noise. "Again, for spewing such vitriol, you contain so many soft spots."

Drawing his hand away from Dib, he trailed a finger over the human's bottom lip, smearing it shiny with spit and leaving a thin string of it connected when he drew his hand away entirely. It frayed and snapped, leaving a line of wetness at the corner of Dib's lips.

Dib's face _burned_.

Purple sighed and picked up the screen again, lowering his voice to where only Dib could hear him. "If you continue to be so interesting, °_Almafil_°, I might just find myself growing fond of you."

"What--"

Before Dib could finish his sentence, Purple had clicked his claws and the floor beneath Dib disappeared, dropping him abruptly into a dark metal tube that sent him shooting almost straight down. Letting out a shout of startled, dark surprise, Dib scrabbled uselessly at the smooth metal walls to try and stop his descent, but there was nothing to grab onto. 

The tube was long and heart-stoppingly fast, and Dib was sure that wherever he was shot out, he would slam into the floor and splatter apart like a bug hitting a windshield. Then the tube curved into a loop and Dib lost all sense of direction, cursing loudly as he tried once more to catch hold of something to stop himself with. Before he could, there was a scraping noise and suddenly a circle of light beneath him, blinding him. Dib shrieked again, a visceral, freezing terror gripping his chest as he plummeted to what he assumed was his death.

He was launched out of the tube--and hit a soft, bouncy surface so hard it nearly bounced him right back into the tube. The breath was knocked out of him in a wheezing gasp, and before he could fall back down again, four metal cords shot out of the thing below him and attached to each of his silver bracelets, yanking him back down onto the plush and pulling until he was laying on his back, limbs splayed out like he'd been strapped to a rack.

Chest heaving, Dib shut his eyes briefly to get his bearings and hopefully slow his heart rate. "I'm alive? Holy fuck, I'm alive."

He let his head fall back against the plush surface, shut his eyes, and let out a rattled breath. Facing certain death was far, _far_ more difficult when the thing that was going to kill you wasn't alive. Dib supposed it had something to do with his pride and its need to remain intact around other beings. Or the fact that it was hard to die scared when he didn't know how he was gonna die. Sentient beings were like roulette wheels--you never knew what you were going to get. 

The thing that humans feared the most, the oldest and strongest kind of fear, was their fear of the unknown. Perhaps that was where Dib differed.

He wasn't afraid of the unknown. He _**craved**_ it.

His hunger for knowledge tended to overcome everything else, as evidenced by the peril he seemed to _constantly_ place himself and others in, regardless of the consequences. Dib winced. 

No. _No_. He'd already had his moment to wallow. No more. It was useless to dwell on things he couldn't change. Dib had learned that the hard way.

Tugging experimentally on his bonds, Dib quickly came to the conclusion that there was no way he'd be able to escape them. His mind whirled, wondering what the newest restraints were for as he turned his head to take in his surroundings. He was back in Tallest Purple's chambers, though on the opposite side of the room. The thing he was laying on appeared to be some sort of egg shaped metal pod, fitted with a cushy bolster and padded with orchid fabrics. Above him, the tube had closed, and in its place was a canopy of sheer, violet curtains trimmed in black lace. Again, it was that mix of technological and opulent that left Dib a little in awe and a little befuddled. 

Dib absently twisted his wrists, though he knew it wouldn't do anything but bruise him. He still didn't know why Purple hadn't killed him--why the Tallest was even bothering with this elaborate power play at all when he could've just had Dib shot from the beginning. Surely that would've been easier?

Then again, Dib mused to himself, perhaps that was why. Maybe Tallest Purple didn't want it to be easy. He seemed to display even more sadism than the average Irken, even if it wasn't an aggressive sort of sadism. 

Dib was broken from his rambling thoughts by the door sliding open. How long had it been? He couldn't tell. Enough for Purple to finish whatever he'd been doing in the main room and head back down to his chambers as well. A while, then. 

Remembering what he'd seen on the screen earlier, Dib went pale. 

_Anatomy Report_.

Oh fuck. Oh _fuck_, was Dib about to get vivisected? He rapidly withdrew his earlier opinion on Purple's brand of sadism, heart in his throat even as he glared daggers at the Irken, who glided into the room and made his way leisurely over to Dib. 

"So your Seamster was lying then," Dib began almost conversationally, if not for the caustic hint to his voice. "You know, if you wanted to torture me, you could've just led with that to psyche me out. No need for intricate mind games if you're just going to fuck it up anyway. I mean--"

"Irk, you speak entirely too much," Purple murmured as he reached the edge of the pod bed, reaching out to trail one of his claws along Dib's outer thigh. "So noisy." 

The muscle in his leg jumped in a reflexive attempt to move away, but the bonds had absolutely zero give. Dib clenched his teeth. "Well if you were about to be cut open by--"

He was cut off yet again by Purple gripping him by the throat, leaning down, and kissing him harshly. When Dib made a stunned, protesting noise, he was rewarded with _foot long tongue_ pressing past his lips and shoving down his throat, choking off any further sounds. Dib's head was swimming as he desperately tried to process what the hell was happening, lungs beginning to ache with lack of oxygen as he tried to turn his head to the side. Purple kept Dib pinned where he wanted him, claws biting into his jaw. He was as disproportionately strong, as all Irkens seemed to be. 

Dib was on the verge of blacking out, chest straining for air in frantic hiccups, before Purple pulled back again. Purple drew his tongue back in with a little twirl, eyes opening slowly so he could look down at Dib with mocking pity as the human gasped for air, half wild. He sighed. "Poor thing, you think the worst of me," He lamented with a pout. Then it twisted into a sneer, sharp fingers scraping across Dib's leg to dig at his inner thigh, drawing blood _far_ to close to his junk. "But your mind is so limited."

Dib coughed out another breath and wrenched at the bonds keeping him pinned and splayed. "You fucking--"

The collar zapped him, and Purple grasped him by the hair again, antennae swiveling excitedly. "You have no idea the things I could do to you," He breathed, eyes sparkling with hunger. "I could leave you to a fate of the void without having to lift a finger. I could drive you so far from yourself that you could _never_ return."

"_Do it then!_" Dib bayed, chest heaving as his hands shook. "If you can do it--if you can hurt me, if you can kill me, then _why don't you_?" He demanded viciously, feeling frayed at the seams and corybantic. (He wasn't gonna address the...tongue thing. Nope. Didn't happen. Putting a pin in it.)

"Oho, °_Almafil_°, no," Purple chuckled with a smirk. He shook his head and leaned closer. "If I do that, then it is not retribution."

"What?" Dib uttered, disbelieving.

"I do not think you understand the extent of what you have done in making the 'Resistance' an actual threat, human. Not only did it make me seem foolish for dismissing them out of hand in their early stages, but they also managed to put a dent in the Armada's forces. Irkens are to present a united and impenetrable front at all times. In going after us with such vehemence--inspiring _others_ to go against us--you have made us look weak. You have made _me_ look weak. So now, I will do the same to you. Just more efficiently."

Dib swallowed, and Purple watched his Adam's apple bob with interest. It made him squirm, unused to being so scrutinized. 

Trailing a bloody claw upwards and subsequently ratcheting up Dib's pulse by several notches, Purple hummed. "I didn't know how to go about it at first. What would chafe greatest? What would be most humiliating?" He ran his other hand absentmindedly through Dib's hair again, tugging curiously at his cowlick. "It probably wouldn't have occured to me had you not been so aesthetically pleasing. But then again, perhaps it would have, because this is about _control_. And do you know what the ultimate form of control is, Dib?" 

The sound of his name in Tallest Purple's mouth combined with the sudden realization of _what_ exactly Dib's particular brand of torture was going to be--it made him nauseous. His stomach lurched, face incredibly pale. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, °_Jarumil_°," Purple laughed with a vicious grin. "You have no idea what I am capable of."

•⚡•

Zim was sitting in the kitchen of his base and staring solemnly at the wall when _he_ finally came. 

It hadn't been long since he'd had to cut off all ties to Dib, but Red had been keeping him a very specific kind of busy, so it was hard to keep track of the exact amount of time that had passed. Even sitting for a prolonged amount of time hurt--the drawbacks of having a Tallest for a mate, he supposed. Zim wasn't really thinking about it. It felt good in the moment, blasted his grief from him and cleansed him of pain like one of those pressurized hoses humans used to clean their houses. 

But then Zim was left with this. Silence. Guilt. Obsession. _What am I supposed to do now?_

To be honest, with every day that passed Red's offer was looking more and more appealing. A spot on the Massive, existing among the Collective again, adored and acknowledged and _loved_, as he had always wanted to be. 

The only thing stopping him was remnants of Dib that he couldn't shove down, gazing at him with those pitying, calamitous eyes and saying, "You're never going to change, are you?" 

Zim squeezed his eyes shut, the burn of having them open so long making his throat hurt. He got by most days on completely denying that Dib was gone. It was only at moments like this, when everything went quiet, that it shoved its way back into his thoughts.

(And Zim had no way to stop them, to drown them out. He had forgotten his art form of simply _existing_ so loudly that he couldn't think. It had been a while since he'd needed it.)

Zim's eyes fluttered open when three sharp knocks rapped on his door, heavy but prim. He contemplated simply setting GIR loose on whoever had dared approach his base, but decided against it. GIR would just make a bigger mess he didn't feel like cleaning up.

Scooting reluctantly off his seat, Zim winced and waved a hand at the ceiling for his disguise. It came down and he popped it on, wig crooked, then went to answer to the door. He didn't even activate the Invisadoor to see who was on the other side--he didn't care. He wrenched it open.

His eyes immediately met a large expanse of white, and Zim slowly dragged his gaze up past long black gloves, a high buttoned collar, blank goggles, and an achingly familiar lightning-shaped cowlick. Zim's eyes widened, numbness abruptly gone. 

Professor Membrane stared down at him, fists clenched. 

"Where is my son?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think y'all know what's coming next.
> 
> (Tf when you get mad that you can't get mad at the thing you're mad at because everytime you look at it you can't stay mad 😤)
> 
> ALSO BEFORE I FORGET: silly-illie created yet another fab piece of art, which you can find [here!](https://silly-illie.tumblr.com/post/190683156054/grimalkinmessor-im-so-sorry-for-spamming-you)


	13. The Situations Are Irrelevant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> See that Dubcon tag? Yeah :3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS TOOK WAY TOO LONG I AM SO SORRY HAVE SOME SMUT

"_Where_," Professor Membrane began again as he shouldered his way into Zim's house, having to duck beneath the doorway to fit. Zim scrambled back, alarmed and wheezing. "Is my _son_?"

"W-What are you doing here?" Zim squawked instead of an answer. (He couldn't answer. What was he supposed to say?)

"I want to know where my son is," the Dib-father growled, brow cinched in stern anger. "I've seen enough of you around my home to know that you two are friends. So tell me where he is."

Zim's throat closed up, eyes swimming. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to _say_?

Professor Membrane was rapidly losing his patience. He stepped forward, gripping Zim abruptly by the front of his uniform and hiking him up to he could look at him in the eye. "I know you think that you're helping him, but he can't pout forever. He has to come home eventually. I know you're housing him. Just tell him that he needs to come home, and...tell him I said that we'll talk things over once he gets there."

Zim couldn't help it. He kicked the stupid, _stupid_ Dib-father right in his sternum. Professor Membrane released Zim with a grunt, and Zim landed unsteadily on his feet, glaring wetly up at the man as he rubbed absently at his throat where his collar had dug into his skin. 

Averting his eyes, Zim staggered over to the wall and leaned on it for support, knees suddenly weak. "The Dib is...gone."

Professor Membrane, who had been gearing up for an argument, paused. His brow furrowed. "What?"

"THE DIB IS GONE!" Zim screamed, expression wild and agonized. He clutched at his skull and screwed his eyes shut, chanting wretchedly, "He's gone he's gone he's gone--"

"What is going on here?"

Zim gasped and looked up, catching sight of--well. Red had certainly thought his disguise through better than Zim had. That he had come up with a disguise at all should have been a good sign--a sign that he was willing to spend a longer period of time on Earth. That Zim was, perhaps, just maybe, winning him over.

Professor Membrane studied the dark haired man in front of him suspiciously, scarlet eyes meeting blue-sheened goggles. Both were equally blank. The Dib-father huffed. "I was inquiring as to where my son has run off to, given that he and your son were close."

Red smiled beautifically, folding his now quintile digited hands behind his back. "Zim isn't my son, though I can understand the confusion." He strode over to Zim and tugged the distraught Smaller into his side, pressing Zim's face to his chest. Zim's claws dug into the crimson vest and cream undershirt (where had Red gotten _those_) and he swallowed. "And your line of questioning is a rather sensitive subject, here. You see, Zim and your son had an argument before he left--precisely about him leaving, in fact. Zim tried to convince him not to go, and the argument grew so heated that your son left and cut off all communication with Zim. He hasn't heard from him since. It's been very hard on him, you understand."

Stroking Zim's wig right where his antennae were pinned, Red tipped his head at the Dib-father and put on a very good impression of a disappointed teacher. 

"Why was this not brought to my attention? If you knew my son was leaving, and you wanted to stop him, then why would you not inform me of his absence?" Professor Membrane demanded, somewhat calmly, though still irritable. He seemed, surprisingly, slightly worried.

"Pardon?" Red said sharply, eyes slitting. "With all due respect, _sir_, your son has been gone for nearing five months. I would have thought you'd have noticed by now," He drawled loftily, coming off airy but still aiming to deal a blow.

Zim was viscerally reminded of why he loved Red in that moment. He thought he might kiss him, had he not needed his PAK legs to do it.

'_Yes,_' Zim thought meanly. '_Make him hurt. Make him leave. He's the reason my Dib is gone. Gone, gone, gone._'

"Five--five _months_?" Professor Membrane repeated, aghast. 

Before either Irken could reply, there was a screeching of tires and a familiar motorbike was slamming to a halt at the end of the walkway. Gaz swung herself off it and stalked forward, looking stormy. Zim's antennae shot back against his skull, then perked up as she reached the door and grabbed her father unit by the arm and spun him around. "What the fuck, Dad? I said _don't_ go bother Zim. He's not going to tell you anything."

Professor Membrane turned to her. "Is it true? Has your brother been gone for five months?"

"Just about," Gaz replied boredly, opening her eyes just to roll them. "But it doesn't matter. Dib may be an idiot but he's fine. Right, Zim?"

When she turned to look at him, Zim cringed into Red and flexed his claws anxiously. They caught on the fabric and drew Gaz's gaze up towards his Tallest. She raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment, glancing down to Zim expectantly. He swallowed, looking away. "...Dib is gone."

Gaz blinked, owlish. Then her mouth twisted and she was silent for a moment, rolling her shoulders and cocking her head as if listening for something. After a minute or so, filled with tension so thick it made it hard to breathe, she scoffed. "Yeah, the moron's fine. C'mon, Dad, we're going home. Let Zim be angsty in peace."

"But--"

"Nope." Gaz began to drag him out of the house, back toward Dib's old bike. She'd taken to using it since he left. 

Zim and Red watched with wide eyes as Professor Membrane was yanked, protesting and pulling, out of the house by a girl half his size. She shoved him onto the back of the motorbike, smacked a bright pink helmet over his head, and swung herself onto the seat in front of him. She revved it up and then went peeling out of the culdesac, but not without giving Zim a vague nod beforehand. 

Then it was just Zim and Red, whose hand had tightened around Zim's shoulders when Gaz showed up and had yet to relax. 

"Tall yet dumb, indeed," Red muttered sourly, miffed. He pulled Zim closer and sighed, the disguise disappearing and leaving Red looking mostly like himself, save for the suit. He trailed a claw beneath Zim's chin fondly. "You know, I think I've just discovered something about myself."

Zim, who had been slowly descending into his whirlwind of thoughts, snapped back to the present at the sound of Red's voice. He'd interrogate the Gaz-beast later, it seemed. He blinked up at Red, slightly dazed from the events of the past ten minutes. "And what is that?"

Red smiled wryly. "I really _hate_ pants."

•⚡•

Dib immediately began to struggle in his binds, eyes wide as Purple's grin widened. Dib snarled. "Get your hands _off_ me--I'll _kill_ you, you--!"

"Normally I would not hesitate to take advantage of a new way to silence a mouthy brat, but unfortunately I currently don't have a way to ensure your teeth stay out of the equation. Or, I suppose, a way that would not end up permanently mutilating you." Purple mused, walking his bloody claws further up Dib's leg and making the human thrash harder. 

"Get OFF of--" 

"Oh, I plan to," Purple drawled as Dib choked on his own spit, the pointed tip pressed into the side of his dick threat enough that he bit his tongue. "Hm, I would normally never doubt Flit, but I do find myself curious. Flit is not one to exaggerate, mind you, but all the same..."

"Don't--!"

Purple grasped the net of silver and gemstones and tossed it back. Dib went crimson, flush spreading all the way down to his chest as he squeezed his eyes shut, mortified. 

"Hm. Proportionate. Though, with the way Flit was going on, you would think you had a Lyr Serpent hiding in your underthings. Though, I suppose that might just be his shock that it resides outside your body. Primitive, but not unheard of. Though _this_ is odd."

Dib yelped and choked on air, strangled, when Purple's claw strayed down from his dick toward the cleft of his ass. "DON'T!"

"Why should I?" Purple simpered, clearly enthused by Dib's growing panic. "After all, it's only fair. You've humiliated me enough, by now--I am only returning the favor. You should be grateful I am not having you killed."

"N-Not..." Dib swallowed, thinking fast. "Not for long, though, if you keep going. You'll kill me. Didn't you just go on a whole rant about not killing me until I've learned my lesson or whatever?"

Purple's expression pinched and soured. He retracted his hand slightly. "There nothing about this proving fatal in Flit's report."

He sounded uncertain. _Good_. "Of course it wouldn't. He scanned me for basic functionality and parts, not things that would kill me. Since, again, you said that was something you were holding off on. Obviously."

Dib couldn't help the venom that seeped into his voice as he went on, until he nearly bit off his tongue on the last word to stop it from coming out as a snarl.

Stabbing his claws through the skin of Dib's hip and watching with irate, hungry eyes as the human cursed and jerked futilely in his binds, Purple hummed. "Well, I suppose one of your friends would do just as well. Debasing them in front of you, while you sit helpless to do anything but watch--that should be entertaining, no?"

"No!" Dib blurted out before he could stop himself. He yanked at his restraints again, and they groaned in protest. "_Don't_ touch them!" Purple's antennae perked as he tilted his head at Dib, waiting. Dib's chest heaved and he worked his jaw for a moment, furious and corner-caught. Twisting his wrists, he grit his teeth. "I... won't bite you."

"You won't, will you, little °_Almafil_°?" Purple mused, sharp teeth bared in mirth. There was obviously a significance to that word that Dib didn't understand. "Tell me why."

"Considering you just threatened one of my people--" Dib began caustically, only to be cut off.

"Your people, your people," Purple sighed. "As if you were responsible for the whole of the universe and all the rats that inhabit it. This little quirk of yours is tedious," he grumbled as he swung himself up into the pod, knees bracketing Dib's stomach and his skirts puffing out over the bolster like wisteria petals. Dib choked on air, and Purple grasped his chin again, tipping his face back. "If effective."

"If you didn't know it would work, why would you make the threat in the first place?" Dib snapped, voice strained as Purple traced his claws down his throat.

The Tallest purred. "It wasn't a threat, merely an alternate course of action. One which you seem to be adverse to--enough so that you would offer up yourself for degradation instead. It's something that incites curiosity."

"In Irken society, maybe," Dib grumbled, mouth twisted ruefully. Purple smirked, and something _writhed_ against the bottom of Dib's ribs. Dib paled and stiffened, muscles locked up as he bit back panic by the skin of his teeth. "_Whoa_\--kay!" He yelped shrilly, wide eyed.

Purple chuckled, leaning forward to brush his mouth against Dib's ear, just above the tag. "Is this your version of behaving, human? Or is there another point I need to press before you stop your barking and open your mouth?"

_Fuck._

Dib swallowed, jaw clenched, and huffed out a breath through his nose. Then, wrangling his pride by the throat (ha) he stuffed it deep down into his subconscious, allowing his guilt to bloom to the surface and take the wheel instead. He wet his lips, watched Purple track the movement with a thrill of terror, and slowly parted his lips. A startled noise escaped him as a gauntleted hand grasped the base of his skull and wrenched his head up and forwards, the other prodding at his tongue again. Dib scrunched up his nose, but didn't protest. 

"Amazing, how obedient mutts can be when you dangle the right thing in front of their nose," Purple murmured absently, violet eyes flickering.

Dib glared, about to muffle out a scathing retort, when Purple's hand retracted and moved his skirts to the side, a wriggly, dark fuschia _thing_ whipping out into the air to curl and twist in front of Dib's face. Dib recoiled, but Purple's grip on his hair tightened to keep him in place. The blood drained from Dib's face.

It was about ten inches long, with a scale of pointed bracts spiralling around it all the way up to it's tapered tip. They pulsed and fluttered like tiny wings, strings of bright blue fluid snapping between them.

It was easily the most horrifying dick Dib had ever seen in his entire life.

He had time to think, '_Oh my God, what the fuck, what IS that, I don't want that in me, I don't want that anywhere NEAR me--_' before Purple took advantage of his dropped jaw and jolted his hips forward. The bulbed tip hit the back of his throat as the rest of the Tallest's fucking _pinecone dick_ crowded into Dib's mouth and began to writhe in a distinctly unhappy manner when it couldn't go any further.

Dib let out a muffled squawk of protest, only to cut himself off when he realized that the spiney bracts weren't spines at all. They were pointed, yes, but soft, like squishy slips of flesh. Curiosity flooded him, batting away every other concern from his mind in its singular pursuit for answers. He twitched his tongue slightly and found that the blue substance he'd glimpsed tasted like candied rose petals, with a faint hint of something astringent. It reminded Dib of that time at Prom where Zim had ended up pouring an entire bag of sugar into the punch that was more spike than juice by that point. Like wine so sugary it made his teeth ache.

The petals moved in wild pulses with no clear pattern or reason, flicking against his tongue and the insides of his cheeks in a stuttering rhythm. It seemed to have a bit of a mind of its own, and Dib wondered what evolutionary purpose _that_ was supposed to serve before claws slid into his hair and tugged harshly.

Dib snapped back to reality just in time for Purple to find a way around the instinctive block and shove the rest of the way down his throat. Dib choked, and a churr started up in Purple's chest, eyes fluttering as he clutched at Dib's skull and rocked his hips forward. His head bowed, mouth parting quietly as his antennae vibrated and reached forward.

Dib instinctively tried to suck in a breath, only to realize that he couldn't about the same time that his head started to spin. His vision was dotted with dark spots, ringed in white.

"°_Oh, Jarumil_°," Purple sighed as he rocked harshly against Dib's face. His cock was twisting and squirming around, the petals pressing ticklishly against the walls of his esophagus. "Would you look at that." He slipped a hand from Dib's hair to press against his neck, squeezing.

He felt it, then--the bulge of the Tallest's cock stretching his throat, the pulse of the petals prodding tightly against his skin. For Purple to notice, it must've been visible from the outside.

Oh, _God_.

Dib closed his eyes tightly as a flash of arousal darted through him, leaving him pink at the ears. No, no, absolutely not--he was _not_ getting off on this. He was not getting hard because he had an alien dictator fucking his face. He _wasn't_.

His eyes rolled into the back of his head as the petals fluttered against his throat once more, like lackadaisical butterfly wings pressing up through his flesh and into Purple's hand. Silken skirts brushed across Dib's cheeks, and a sliver of jade was revealed as Purple tossed his head back with a pleased sigh. The scent of musky fermentation flooded Dib's nose and strengthened the taste of roses until he was choking on it. 

His head was going fuzzy, lack of oxygen lulling him to a place where the spots dancing across his vision turned to prisms that sent fractals of heat directly to the coil winding lazily in his abdomen. This, Dib's particular hang-up, was...not exactly new. He hazily remembered Zim, speaking to him once after a particularly brutal battle between the two of them. 

_"For all the Dib is a formidable predator, you seem to **enjoy** acting like prey."_

"That's it, °_Jarumil_°. Mm, pretty thing. I knew you'd be perfect for this." Purple traced the swell of his cock down Dib's neck until his claws dug into the dip between prominent clavicles. Dib gave a full body shudder, chest hiccuping violently as his muscles shook with air he didn't have. Goosebumps erupted along the backs of his thighs, world swirling black as adrenaline tried valiantly to keep him awake. 

Surely, Purple would stop before he suffocated. Right? After everything he'd been through, Dib didn't want to die by blowjob. (If his cock twitched a bit at the thought, well, it wasn't _his_ fault. That was involuntary, and _entirely unwelcome_). 

Just as Dib thought he might pass out, a groan rumbling up from his chest, Purple let out a soft keen and jerked Dib's head forward until his nose was smushed up against that slice of emerald between the folds of satin skirts. Dib had a moment of hazy panic when he felt the petals start to swell, before Purple let out an almost wounded snarl and yanked his hips back, bracts scraping Dib's throat raw as the bulbed tip was laid, heavy and hot, on his tongue. Dib gasped in a breath just before a flood of floral slick burst across his mouth, head spinning as the smaller petals locked against his tongue, pushing at the roof of his mouth and keeping his jaw hinged wide as something a little smaller than a tennis ball pushed out of the tip of the Tallest's cock and into his mouth. It was soft and spongy, and Dib caught a hint of wine before it hit his tongue and soured into something citrusy.

Dib drew in a startled, dizzy breath through his nose when another followed, crowding his mouth and choking him when yet _another_ pushed through. Above him, Purple shuddered and moaned, a heavy huff leaving his lips as he sat back on his haunches, the tip of his cock leaving Dib's mouth even as more squishy spheres pulsed out of it. They landed in the divet between Dib's pectorals, that horridly sweet slick pooling in a puddle of toxic blue beneath them. When Dib coughed out the ones filling his mouth, they rolled out and settled in between the other, a deep, iridescent shade of black amongst a cluster of violet. 

Purple still had a hand in Dib's hair, but it wasn't pulling, so Dib let his head fall back against the pillows and flexed his hands with a low groan. His chest heaved, and the little balls--eggs, Dib registered faintly--careening off him to plop wetly onto the bolster as they were dislodged. Purple purred, reaching down to smudge the smear of blue at the corner of Dib's lips as he panted for air. 

"°_Kalbid Jay_°" Purple murmured, and _oh_, Dib recognized that one.

Good boy.

_Fuck_.

Sucking in a shuddering breath, Dib bit his tongue to yank his mind out of its haze, and met Purple's half-lidded, smug eyes. "Did you really have to jet your fucking sterile, would-be spawn into my mouth?"

Ah, yes. Because _sarcasm_ was definitely going to save this situation, Dib. Too bad 'witty one-liners' were all he had in his arsenal.

Purple's eyes narrowed. He plucked up one of the eggs that had been in Dib's mouth and lifted it up to the light. It shimmered and dripped blackened slick on Dib's face. Dib flinched and scowled.

"I should've known your silence wouldn't last," Purple sighed after a moment, shifting his skirts over his dick once more. "I quite like it when all you can do is whine and choke." He prodded at Dib's cheek with a claw and smirked when it flushed scarlet. Flashing fangs at the angry, mortified human beneath him, Purple hummed. "You're lucky I didn't finish down your throat; I wasn't sure how your body would react to them. If they might take." 

Purple swung his legs to the side to sit beside him as Dib let out an indignant, "_Take?_"

"They also might have killed you. It already seems like the pH of your body is having a reaction with them, and while I would love to see you lowered to nothing more than a brood mare, I would rather have you alive. If only to use your mouth again, of course."

"Of course," Dib scoffed with a sneer. His hands were shaking. He flattened the against the pillows to hide it.

Purple smiled and slid off the pod bed, landing lightly on the floor, tainted egg still in hand. "I will send someone to clean up your mess and put you back in your box. I've been terribly busy lately, because of you and your antics, but expect my summons soon." He reached forward and grasp Dib's chin with his free hand. "You can relieve the stress you've caused."

Dib wrenched his face out of Purple's grip and scowled, teeth bared. Purple merely grinned. He spun on heel and swept swiftly out of the room, though to where, Dib didn't have a clue. He let his head fall back again, huffing irritably. 

"'Expect my summons'," Dib uttered mockingly. "Hoity toity motherfucker." He licked his lips and swallowed. Roses and wine. Dib smashed his face against the soft surface beneath him and scrubbed his cheek across it with a growl, face pink as he worked to wipe the slick off his mouth. Someone would apparently come to clean up, but Dib didn't want to be seen like this anymore than he already had been. Lips red and puffy, chin streaked in blue, eggs sitting wetly on his clavicles and cradled on the bed in the crook of his neck. 

He had no doubt he looked messy. Wrecked. He was going to stoutly ignore the fact that he was half hard.

The door slid open again, and Dib froze, eyes wide. His head jerked up and met a familiar silver gaze. Flit swept his eyes over Dib and raised an eyebrow. Dib groaned and flopped back down.

Great. Just great.


	14. No Lunchbox Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AYYYY WE BACK. With some more Flit because I am trash for my own OCs 😅

Dib groaned. "Of course. Of _course_ it's you."

"Better me than someone else, human," Flit replied sharply as he trotted primly over to the pod. He recoiled slightly when he got close enough to see over the lip of it. "Dear Irk, are those--?"

"Yes." Dib stated bluntly. "Can you get them the fuck off me, please?"

Plucking up one of the darker spheres, Flit narrowed his eyes at it. "Why are some of them different? And where is--"

"Hey, maybe do your job?" Dib bit back, face flushing. "For someone in a servant's position, you sure do ask a hell of a lot of unnecessary questions."

"I need to know if they're going to poison you, seeing as they've obviously been in your _mouth_," Flit hissed, icy. "Do not tell me how to go about my own work!"

Twisting his wrists furiously in their confines, Dib bared his teeth and swallowed his pride. Or, uh, what was left of it. "...Please."

Flit blinked, and then his irritated expression fell. Giving Dib a once over, his eyes darkened. He sighed heavily and began carefully plucking the boba-ball looking things off of Dib and dropping them off to the side. "Fine. I can...understand your frustrations in this, human. Just watch your tongue in the future."

Dib huffed as Flit sniffed haughtily, though he was relieved he was finally getting the scent of sugary fermentation off his skin. He didn't want to think about what it would feel like dried and congealed. Blegh. 

After a moment he licked his lips to get the last of the slick off his face and grimaced as the final egg plopped to the floor. Flit made a noise of disapproval and tapped his flat against the floor. A hole opened up beneath the pile of motley eggs, and they vanished into it before the floor resealed itself like nothing had happened. Dib wondered absently where they went. 

"...I thought that was what you were for, but I wasn't sure. My Tallest Purple is especially enigmatic."

"Thanks for the warning, then," Dib shot back with a scowl.

"It was obvious," Flit snapped as he touched something on the bottom of the pod. The restraints loosened, but didn't unlock. Dib sat up and tested their give with a few wrenching tugs, before huffing and letting his hands rest in his lap. "You mean to tell me that it didn't occur to you as well? What else would he have needed an anatomy report for?"

"I don't fucking know--an autopsy? Anything but that," Dib replied absently, busy feeling around the bands of metal around his ankles, searching for a clasp or release button. He didn't find one.

"He would have just sent you to Rae for that," Flit muttered with a derisive sniff. He handed Dib a rough cloth, then smoothed out his tunic like he was wiping off his hands. "Clean yourself up. I'm not going to parade you through the Massive like that."

"What, covered in alien jizz?" Dib drawled caustically as he hastily scrubbed the cloth over his face. "Not really my fault, you know."

Flit flushed lilac and scowled. "Nonetheless. Hurry up. If you want food by mealtime, you'll need to be well and done with the tests on what will and will not kill you."

"I know all Irkens can stomach is sugar and carbs," Dib replied, rubbing the blue sheen off his neck with a huff of disgust. "Humans need a little more than that to be healthy, but I doubt any of your snacks would kill me." He handed the cloth back once he'd gotten all of it off and his skin was no longer tacky. 

Flit took the soiled cloth and withdrew it back into his PAK with a sneer. "What else do humans need then?"

Dib jerked at his restraints again, frowning. "Lots of stuff. Meat and vegetables, for protein and vitamins. Dairy products, maybe? I don't know if we actually _need_ it, but milk has a lot of vitamin D, and we need that. Bread, water. Like, half a gallon of water a day. I definitely need water."

"Stop tugging at those," Flit snapped, eyeing Dib's cuffs with narrowed eyes. "You will end up injuring yourself, and trust me when I say that you do not want to meet Doctor Rae this early into your time here. Best avoid the Labs at all costs in the no doubt limited time you're aboard the Massive. I will see about getting you _water_, along with food. I'll still need your blood samples, however, so stay still for a moment." A metal arm extended from his PAK, tipped with an empty syringe that he directed towards the chained up arm closest to him. 

Dib clenched his jaw and glared at Flit, wary. He felt the needle pierce his skin, but he didn't acknowledge it. "Just out of curiosity, how quickly does your Tallest get bored of his, uh, _playthings_?"

Flit hummed, pulling the syringe back and flicking it with a claw. He studied the crimson contents of it for a moment, intrigued, before stowing it away in his PAK. Silver eyes glanced at Dib. "Two days at the very least. Two weeks if you're interesting enough. I give you a week and a half."

"Gee, thanks," Dib deadpanned with a roll of his eyes. "Can't say I'm not looking forward to it though."

"I don't fault you there, human. Non-Irkens do not tend to last long under my Tallest Purple's scrutiny, and yet most would rather have died than ever been subject to it. And then they do die. And I am left to clean up the mess."

"Lovely."

"Indeed," Flit mused, stepping back as the cords attached to Dib's cuffs finally retreated. "Follow me."

Dib stepped down off the pod, wobbled for a moment, and straightened. Huffing, he jerked the net of gems and chains over his hips into a more modest alignment, then gestured for Flit to lead the way. Flit gave him a once over, hummed, and trotted over to the door. 

Glancing over his shoulder to make sure Dib was behind him, Flit made his way out into the hall. Knowing yet again that the lack of chains was simply an illusion of freedom--one that the collar doused fairly thoroughly--Dib bit his cheek and made himself focus. He may not have been able to escape yet, but he needed to be prepared for the chance if it came. His eyes slid feverishly over the halls, cataloguing directions and distinguished markings as they walked. 

Flit took him down yet another hallway, and another, before reaching a divet between one hall and the next where a clear, circular tube rested. Flit ushered him into it, then stepped in himself to press a hand to the panel next to the opening. 

The floor beneath them abruptly dropped, a yelp escaping Dib's lips as his stomach lurched. Lights flashed past them at a dizzying pace, before stopping just as abruptly as it had started. Whatever force that had been keeping him and Flit attached to the floor disappeared when the glass slid back, the sudden return of momentum sending Dib stumbling into the wall and falling to the floor. 

Flit smirked meanly at him and stepped primly over his prone form, trotting off down the hall without looking back. Huffing through his nose, Dib levered himself to his feet once more, irate.

The hall before them was cold and gray, arches of darker metal carved into the tunnel every few feet. The floor was bitingly icy beneath Dib's bare feet. He grimaced.

"These are the old servants' quarters," Flit supplied as he continued down the hall. "But the sensors down here are too sensitive for low level Irkens, so they were moved. We haven't have need of these in almost a century."

"Sensitive?" Dib questioned cautiously.

"It interferes with PAK signals and made fights break out. Which normally wouldn't have been an issue, but the servants eventually started killing each other down here," Flit answered as he stopped before one of the metal arches and slammed his hand into the ridge of it. A panel rose up beneath his hand, and he huffed and began to rapidly tap his fingers across it in a sequence too complex for Dib to memorize. 

Dib raised his eyebrows and glanced around. "Did you ever consider that it might not be their PAKs making them act like that?"

Flit paused, antennae twitching. "What do you mean?"

Waving a hand at their surroundings, Dib scoffed. "Look at this place! It looks like the Stanley Prison Experiment and a concentration camp had a baby. Anyone would go insane in here."

Flit hesitated, then resumed his tapping. "Then you had best hope that you are not just 'anyone'."

With that disturbing warning, the door slid open and Flit stepped aside. He pointed through the arch with a stern expression. Baring his teeth to hide his apprehension, Dib slipped past Flit and into the chamber beyond. 

It was just as dreary and dark as the hallway, the only difference being the slab of metal suspended off the ground in the back of the room. There was one source of light about the size of a quarter, shining out from over the door. Dib swallowed. "Definitely Stanley Prison Experiment."

He jumped when the door slid shut behind him, the light over it blinking red for a moment, before fading to purple. Because of course. Dib huffed, annoyed, then turned to survey his new prison cell.

It was less disgusting than the previous one, though nowhere near on par with the Tallest's personal chambers. No rust marred the metal walls, but that was all there was. Metal walls, metal floor, metal bed. Or, what he had assumed was a bed. Dib knew that Irkens didn't need to sleep, though occasionally Zim had liked to indulge, but the slab of metal hung from the back of the cramped room didn't look very conducive for it. Dib reached out and pushed it with his foot. It swung loudly back and forth, chains rattling together as the slab swayed and jerked about with them. Dib covered his ears and winced. The acoustics in here were awful.

The purple light coupled with the fact that he'd neither been given his glasses or goggles back made it hard to see, so he strode over to the far wall and began to slide his hands across it, searching for any dips or ridges he might be able to pry open. He hit the corner and turned with it, feeling along the other wall for anything he could use as a weapon. 

The tag in his ear suddenly lit up, and he jolted at the reminder that it existed. 

"_**Rest**_," the tag chimed quietly. 

Dib frowned. The tag only seemed to give direct orders from Tallest Purple, though how _that_ worked, Dib had yet to discover. Ignoring the tag and the order, Dib continued to feel along the metal. Fingertips stumbling slightly over a small ridge between the sheets of steel that made up the chamber, Dib smiled sharply. 

Digging his fingers into it, Dib curled his hands and pulled as hard as he could, a metallic groan whining out from beneath them. Something gave way slowly below it, and Dib widened his stance to try and get a better grip. 

"**_Rest._**" the tag ordered again, louder.

"Fuck off," Dib ground out, jaw clenched as pain pinged through his fingertips from his too-tight grip. The metal shifted.

Dib yelped and lurched back away from the wall, hands flying to his throat as the collar around his throat crackled viciously against his skin. It lowered to a buzz when he collapsed to his knees, ears ringing as blood welled at the back of his tongue. 

"**_Rest._**"

"How do you even know if I'm standing or sitting?" Dib shouted in frustration, nails scraping against the slats folded over his neck in an absent attempt to remove it. 

"**_Rest._**"

"Yes, thank you, very helpful," Dib drawled, unimpressed. He scratched at the collar again, irate, only to have it shock him again. Crying out, Dib spasmed against the floor and propped himself up on shaky hands when it stopped. "I WAS ALREADY SITTING DOWN!" He roared, furious.

"**_Rest until the Almighty Tallest Purple calls for you,_**" was the only response he got.

Dib glared around the room, searching for a hidden camera or something similar as his chest heaved. "I'd have an easier time 'resting' if I wasn't shocked every fucking five seconds. Not really conducive to sleep."

The tag was silent. Dib scoffed. He clawed his way shakily up the wall and hastily sat on the slab of steel at the back of the room when the collar heated in warning. It swung hectically back and forth, nearly toppling Dib right back off of it into the floor. Dib clung to the chains to steady it and huffed.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fucking _resting_," he grumbled scathingly as he flopped backwards. He hissed at the chill against his bare back, but there was nothing he could do about that just now. There was only so much he could get away with using the 'I could die' line before Purple started asking questions, which was honestly the worst thing he could do right now. The Tallest seemed content to humiliate and insult Dib for the moment, and Dib could only hope he'd get bored before he decided to go digging for more information. 

As far as Dib could tell, Tallest Purple didn't seem to recognize him. That meant that he couldn't trace Dib back to Zim, and back to Earth. Maybe it was selfish to be worried about his own planet when he had an entire crew of Resistance members to be agonizing over the fates of--which had made it out alive, which had been killed, which had been captured and were being held in the cells below him--but at the moment Dib couldn't bring himself to care. 

He was hurting and tired and so very _done_ with the day's events, not to mention the fact that he hadn't eaten in what had to be days and the cell was cold as _fuck_. Given he'd been granted Purple's personal You Don't Get To Die Yet card, Dib thought that he could afford to be a little petulant at the moment. 

He could only hope that whatever Flit eventually came up with for food was edible.

•⚡•

Gaz stormed into Dib's room and kicked open the door to her brother's closet, immediately going for the box tucked away in the upper corner. Tossing the lid aside, Gaz rummaged through the box's contents until she unearthed a small, magenta square of plastic ringed in blue. A familiar symbol was stamped to the top of it in black. 

Throwing the box carelessly back into the closet (a laser sounded and the smell of something burning seeped through the air) Gaz enlarged the communicator and rapidly slid her fingers across the screen. Lips twisted, she ran a hand through her buzzed hair and sneered down at the screen as it flickered pink and stuttered to life. 

A familiar, ragged looking Irken came into view, scowling. "_What, D--oh._" Tak blinked at the sight of Gaz, surprised. Her cheeks flooded mauve. "_...Hello, Gazlene._"

"Tak," Gaz grumbled back. "Wanna tell me why the fuck my brother's heartbeat keeps going in and out? Last time we talked you told me he was still in the Xoryian quadrant, safe and sound. Now Zim thinks he's fucking dead."

"_Your hatchmate was fine the last time I had eyes on him!_" Tak snapped back, blush rapidly disappearing beneath anger. "_But I haven't sent anyone out since. I have better things to do than monitor your idiot sibling!_" Gaz's eye cracked open and flashed red. Tak's antennae shot back against her skull. She bared her teeth. "_Ugh, but I could send someone out! He couldn't have gotten far. Whatever trouble he's gotten his idiot self into cannot be any worse than dealing with that defective food drone on a day to day basis._"

Gaz's eyes flickered back to amber, and she shut them with a hum. She tipped her head. "Good. How are things in Morocco?"

Tak's antennae perked back up and she relaxed, a wry smile tugging at her lips. "_Irritating. Apparently another rebellious force has made its moves against the Empire, but we can't get in touch with them. I sent Gil out to see what the fuss is about. Normally I would have sent Vil, but she has to maintain her facade as Minister here to keep us supplied with resources. I meant to thank you for your...help, last time._"

"I felt plenty thanked," Gaz mused with a smirk. Tak flushed and looked away. Gaz chuckled and rubbed a hand over her mouth. "Let me know what you find. Dib may be a moron but he's my brother; he's all I have."

"_What about your progenitor?_"

"Like I said," Gaz said cooly. "Dib's all I've got."

Tak's lips pursed, and she nodded sharply. "_Until next time, Gazlene. °**Arbak Iinanaebaduk**°_"

Gaz raised a brow. "You ever gonna tell me what that means?"

Take grinned viciously. "_No._"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehehe >:3
> 
> [My Irken Dictionary](https://www.quotev.com/story/12327465/HC-Irken-Dictionary/1)


End file.
